Endocentric compounds

An endocentric compound, usually called determinative, is where the compound is essentially the sum of its parts, the meaning being an extension of one of the parts:

• blackbird → a type of black bird^{[lower-alpha 3]}
• White House → the official residence of the US president^{[lower-alpha 4][8]}
• siṃha·purás → lion-city (Singapore)

Exocentric compounds

An exocentric compound refers to something outside the components:

• redhead → someone with red hair^{[lower-alpha 5]}
• pickpocket → someone who picks someone else's pockets^{[lower-alpha 6][7]}
• 'bahu·vrīhi' → lit. 'much-rice', i.e., possessing much rice: an indication of wealth

Indeed, this term 'bahuvrihi' is used both in Sanskrit and standard Indo-European linguistics to denote this type of compound.^[9]

Sanskrit expands on these to provide several further distinctions as below:

Tatpuruṣa (determinative)

A tatpuruṣa is an endocentric compound composed of two elements, wherein the first one, named the attributive, determines the second one.^[11][12]

Based on the grammatical nature of the attributive member, six varieties of tatpuruṣa compounds are identified as seen in the classification above. A further distinction is also made based on whether the attributive is in the nominative or an oblique^{[lower-alpha 8]} case.^{[10][11][lower-alpha 9]}

Dvandva (co-ordinative)

These consist of two or more noun stems connected with "and" (copulative or co-ordinative). There are mainly three kinds of dvandva pair constructions in Sanskrit:^[27]

Bahuvrīhi (possessive)

Bahuvrīhi^{[lower-alpha 15]} is an exocentric compound consisting of a noun preceded by a grammatical modifier which, taken together, functions as a single nominalised adjective.

A bahuvrīhi compound can often be translated by "possessing..." or "-ed"; for example, "possessing much rice" or "much-riced". In English, examples of bahuvrīhi would be "lowlife" and "blockhead" (they respectively denote 'one whose life is low' and 'one whose head resembles a block'), or the English surname Longbottom ('one who lives in a long "botham" [valley]').

The second element could essentially have been a noun, which within such a compound, can take on adjective declensions with the compound used adjectivally. Endocentric compounds can thus be transformed into possessives, normally accompanied, and explicitly recognized in the older language, by a change in accentuation:^[33][34]

• indra·śatrú-, 'Indra's killer' ⇒ índra·śatru-, 'having Indra as killer'^{[lower-alpha 16]}
• bṛhad·ratha-, 'a great chariot' ⇒ bṛhád·ratha-, 'having great chariots'
• sūrya·tejás-, 'sun's brightness' ⇒ sū́rya·tejas-, 'possessing the brightness of the sun'

A few typical examples of such compounds:^[36]

Avyayībhāva (adverbial)

Avyayībhāvas ('indeclinable') are adverbial compounds composed of an indeclinable element (an adverb, etc.) and a noun, together expressing an adverb or another indeclinable (avyaya) element.^[39][40]