This study examined the motivations for the grammaticalization of the cliticized semi-conjunctions of [degree] of the nouns/bound nouns, “Jigyunguro,” “Jungdoro,” and “Mankeum,” all of which combine adnominal verb endings and adverbial particles. Although the cliticized semi-conjunctions “-Ul Jigyunguro,” “–Ul Jungdoro,” and “-Ul Mankeum” are from different etymologies, they have several common meaning and structure characteristics. First, they share an original meaning ([ending/arrival point]), and when the “process to the ending point” is focused on, they produce a [degree]/[over-the-top degree] meaning. Second, in cliticized [degree] semi-conjunction structures, these bound nouns combine with the adnominal verb ending “-Ul” only. In such instances, “-Ul” loses its original function of “tense/aspect”; therefore, “at/ut,” which indicates the “tense/aspect” can precede “-Ul”. Third, “Jigyunguro” and “Jungdoro,” both, take the particle “Ro,” which indicates direction.
Finally, “-Ul Jigyunguro,” “–Ul Jungdoro,” and “-Ul Mankeum” all take a periphrastic grammatical form. In other words, people realize and reanalyze the parallel word sequence as an expression, which means that the conjunctions of [degree] “-Ge” and “-Dorok” can be substituted for “-Ul Jigyunguro,” “–Ul Jungdoro,” and “-Ul Mankeum.”