Affixoidization

Grammaticalization is a process through which lexical items change into grammatical items، or grammatical items acquire more grammatical properties. Generally speaking، in grammaticalization، the direction of change is from lexicon to grammar. This development is accompanied by a change in meaning. One of the widespread meaning changes in grammaticalizaton is metaphorical extension. In this change، words with original concrete meanings are used to represent abstract concepts. This is done by changes in conceptual domains، including time، place، person، thing and quality domains. Conceptualization of abstract domains on the basis of concrete domains results in creation of forms denoting grammatical concepts. In this article، efforts are made to illustrate the role of metaphorical extension، in affixoidization of some classes of lexical items in Persian compounds. In affixiodation، the original independent lexical items acquire some defining characteristics of affixes، like productivity and predictability. Here، one can see a movement from lexicon to grammar، which is fully compatible with process of grammaticalization; therefore، one can conclude that affixoidization is one of the important contributions of grammaticalization in morphology of a language like Persian