morphologization

Morphologization refers to a diachronic process in linguistics in which lexical items, function words, or syntactic constructions become more morphologically bound forms. In this change, independent words or periphrastic constructions are reanalyzed or reconstituted as affixes, clitics, or inflectional paradigms. The result is a more integrated, word-internal grammar where previously separate units are realized as morphological markers.

In practice, morphologization is often discussed as a subset of grammaticalization, with a focus on the emergence and consolidation of morphology rather than broader semantic or syntactic shift. Typical pathways include affixation (a word or particle developing into a suffix or prefix), cliticization (loss of full phonological independence but continued syntactic dependence), and reduction or reanalysis of extended expressions into bound morphemes. Phonological erosion and functional reanalysis frequently accompany these steps, leading to stable,

productive morphological systems.

Common trajectories cited in typological studies include: periphrastic markers for tense, aspect, mood, or evidentiality condensing into bound inflectional markers; demonstratives or numerals developing into definite or numeral classifiers; and pronouns gaining case or agreement functions as part of a larger morphological paradigm. An often-cited classic case is the development of definite articles from demonstratives in several language families, illustrating how a free-standing word can become a grammatical affix-like marker.

Morphologization has implications for historical linguistics, language documentation, and typology, helping explain why some languages exhibit rich inflectional systems while others rely more on separate words for grammatical function.