Between morphology and semantics. Determining the meaning of adverbial compounds (avyayībhāva) in the Sanskrit grammatical tradition.

The present article discusses the semantic structure of adverbial compounds (avyayībhāva) in Sanskrit as presented in the earliest grammatical sources. On the one hand, it shows the shift in their description from the formal approach presented by Pāṇini to a semantic one found in his commentator’s – Patañjali’s work. On the other hand, it tries to determine whether adverbial compounds are semantically a mere combination of their parts or perhaps other factors, such as context, play a role in their semantics.