The study of how Ferdowsi applied prefixes to form new adjectives in Shahnameh

The subject of word formation through using prefixes and suffixes has a long history since upon their addition to create thousands of new words new concepts and meanings find new expressions. Ferdowsi and his masterpiece, Shahnameh enjoy great national and international fame and their names have always been synonymous with the sweet Persian language. Ferdowsi and Shahnameh have been studied from different aspects, yet the writer of this article looks at Shahnameh from the linguistic perspective as far as the adjectives and their structures are concerned. What were the possibilities of forming new words in the Persian language in Shahnameh? Was Ferdowsi familiar with adjective making prefixes and suffixes and to what extent did he apply them to create new adjectives? The purpose of this article is to find answers for the above questions. This study had made use of statistical, documentary, and library based methods. The results obtained are the outcome of two years of research on all the adjectives built in Shahnameh. Finally the author of this article came to the conclusion that Ferdowsi was well familiar with the prefix making adjectives and he had applied that knowledge to form many adjectives to convey various meanings. Certainly it is no wonder that Shahnameh is recognized as a treasury of lexis in the Persian language.