Early Vedic denominatives and their analytic counterparts with √kr̥ 'do, make'.

Several of the synthetic denominative stems known in the earliest Vedic texts correspond to synonymous analytic constructions employing the verbs √kr̥ 'make, do' and √dhā 'place'. The relative frequencies of homologous synthetic and analytic expressions may follow several diachronic trajectories, of which two are common: (1) the denominative dominates in the older layers of the texts; or (2) analytic tokens outnumber denominatives in the same chronological setting. The facts of distribution motivate the argument that certain denominatives (those of the first type) belong to a high register in the inherited lexicon while others (of the second type) are innovative formations recently incorporated into priestly poetic vocabulary. It is further proposed that (1) the synchronic functional range of the root √kr̥ fostered a great deal of surface ambiguity and (2) the denominatives following the second distribution trajectory are neologisms consciously coined in the context of this ambiguity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]