Adjectival typology in four ancient IE languages and the Caland system

This paper re-examines the typology of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) adjectives and the origin of the Caland System (CS). Based on a corpus-based quantitative analysis of quality-modifier constructions across Rigvedic Sanskrit, Homeric Greek, Hittite, and Classical Latin, the authors show that while Latin, Greek, and Hittite favor simple lexical adjectives, Rigvedic Sanskrit relies predominantly on deverbal derivatives and compounds. The data suggest that Vedic preserves a conservative PIE stage characterized by verb-like adjectives (type [N (AV)]). Consequently, the CS can be reconstructed not as an original matrix of suffix substitution among nominal stems, but as a primary deverbal mechanism used to derive adjectives from quality roots. Suffix substitution emerged later as the underlying verbal roots were lost and derivatives became lexicalized.