The Development of Morphological Rules in Children

Abstract

Summary. The present study made use of Berko's ‘Wug Test’ to investigate the development of morphological rules in children aged from 4 to 14. The results suggest that the main usefulness of this procedure should be between the ages of 4 and 12, approximately. Within this range, most of the rules tested show a steady improvement towards a ceiling value. The two exceptions are derivation and the use of the comparative and superlative which show a slower and later development.

Phonological and morphological awareness in first graders

“…These include sound shifts that are fairly systematic (e.g., divide and division, invade and invasion), as well as other shifts that are specifically related to problems of pronunciation (e.g., absorb and absorption). While children are thought to learn some morphophonemic rules between the ages of 7 and 12 (Ingram, 1976;Moskowitz, 1973;Selby, 1972), few first graders are likely to have the phonological sophistication to understand most morphological relations of this type. Awareness of the morphological structure of derived words may be slow to develop because the sound of the base form is often not intact in the derived counterpart (e.g., nature in natural) and because the semantic and grammatical relations are complex (Carlisle, 1988;Henderson, 1985).…”

“…Syntactic knowledge also plays a central role in young children's morphological learning. A number of researchers have shown that preschool and first grade children are learning the inflected forms, which are necessary for the grammar of the language, such as the formation of plurals and verb tenses (Berko, 1958;Selby, 1972). Morphologically complex forms, such as agentives, are seen to be related to the verbal base by children between the ages of 3 and 7 (Randall, 1985).…”

Preschool Phonological and Morphological Awareness As Longitudinal Predictors of Early Reading and Spelling Development in Greek

“…Very young children produce overgeneralizations, such as “buyed” (instead of “bought”). The production of these errors suggests a gradual development in understanding the rules of inflectional morphology (Berko, 1958; Selby, 1972). Nonetheless, the boundary between tacit knowledge of morphological processes and conscious morphological awareness has not been sufficiently investigated.…”

The interrelatedness of lexis and morphology in English language learning

“…МеђуPим, AорасPом инPересовања за вокаLулар и увиђа-њем комуникаPивне вре:носPи речи, о: се:ам:есеPих ;о:ина 20. века наовамо, расPе Lрој исPраживача који се Lаве AиPањем уло;е коју морфоло;ија и;ра у Aроцесу усвајања Aрво;, о:носно :ру;о; језика. Бројне сPу:ије у оLласPи усвајања ен;леско; као маPерње; језика изне:риле су, између осPало;, оAисе ре:осле:а усвајања морфолошких Aроцеса и самих морфема (Berko, 1958;Kuczaj, 1977), указујући на комAлексносP :еривације и AосPеAени расP ово; ви:а језичко; знања (Derwing & Baker, 1986;Selby, 1972). Прем:а :о инPернализовања знања о језичком сисPему и разви-јања сAосоLносPи ;енерализације Aравила :олази веома рано, већ ко: Aре:школске :еце, :ериваPи се усвајају Pоком :уже; вре-менско; Aерио:а који се AроPеже све :о сре:ње школе (Nagy, Diakidoy & Anderson, 1993).…”