Exuberant Compounds in Old Indic

Classical Sanskrit compounds present extremely long and complex constructions, which deviate from compounds of both Vedic and Indo-European, and constitute an exception cross-linguistically. Classical Sanskrit compounds are usually not explained in the literature, under the assumption that they represent a merely artificial product of poetic language. We attempt instead to explain these compounds from a historical perspective. On the one hand, we show that the seeds of the Classical Sanskrit innovation already emerge in Vedic in both morphology and syntax. On the other, we analyse these compounds in the grammatical system of the Classical Sanskrit language as a whole, by considering synchronically the availability of concurrent strategies of attribution and possession, and diachronically the gradual increase of nominal syntax. Moreover, we relate the use of Classical Sanskrit compounds to the cultural context underlying the literary texts of this language – a context which particularly favoured syntactic brevity and compactness, semantic implicitness, ambiguity and generality, as well as a narrative structured around complex frame stories. We also consider how the linguistic and cultural contact with Dravidian may have reinforced the use of Classical Sanskrit compounds, according to a view in which internal and external factors interact.