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0. Introduction
Like other components of grammar, morphological systems are subject to change. The
forms of morphemes as well as the functions and meanings that are associated with
them can change over time. Categories once expressed overtly may be lost, others may
be introduced. A key question in the diachrony of morphology is which mechanisms are
responsible for the creation of new markers. Acknowledging the relevance of borrowing
as an external source for morphology, the most common source of morphological
markers is to be found in material already existing in the language. Members of
compounds can be reinterpreted as derivational affixes, derivational affixes can be
reinterpreted as inflectional affixes, and inflectional markers with restricted lexical
domains can be overgeneralized as basic exponents of a grammatical category. A
relatively common pathway for the evolution of morphology involves the cliticization
of once free-standing words. Classical examples for this mechanism are to be found in
the bonding of postpositions, which results in the creation of new case morphology, or
the bonding of auxiliary verbs to create new tense-aspect-mood morphology (see Joseph
1998 for an overview).
The idea that bound morphology evolves from once free-standing words has a
long tradition in linguistic thought covering several hundred years. This process is only
one aspect of the more general mechanism of language change which has become
known under the heading of the linguistic cycle (Hodge 1970). This concept has a large
number of adherers, ranging from Wilhelm von Humboldt to Max Müller, August
Schleicher, William Dwight Whitney, Carl Meinhof, Antoine Meillet and Georg von der
Gabelentz (see Plank 1992 for an overview). The latter expressed this very idea as
follows:
“Nun bewegt sich die Geschichte der Sprachen in der Diagonale zweier Kräfte: des
Bequemlichkeitstriebes, der zur Abnutzung der Laute führt, und des
Deutlichkeitstriebes, der Abnutzung nicht zur Zerstörung der Sprache ausarten lässt.
Die Affixe verschleifen sich, verschwinden am Ende spurlos; ihre Functionen aber oder
ähnliche bleiben und drängen wieder nach Ausdruck. Diesen Ausdruck erhalten sie,
nach der Methode der isolierenden Sprachen, durch Wortstellung oder verdeutlichende
Wörter. Letztere unterliegen wiederum mit der Zeit dem Agglutinationsprozesse, dem
Verschliffe und Schwunde, und derweile bereitet sich für das Verderbende neuer Ersatz
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