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Grammatical morpheme acquisition: An approximately invariant order?

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Abstract

The order of acquisition for 14 grammatical morphemes was studied in three children between MLU stages II and IV/V. Spontaneous language samples were recorded bimonthly in the children's homes for a period of 9 months. These samples were analyzed for correct use of the 14 morphemes, and the order of acquisition was compared to that reported by Brown (1973) for his three normal subjects. The correlation between the acquisition orders from the present study and the order from Brown's study was low, suggesting that the order of acquisition for these morphemes may not be “invariant”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Communicative Disorders Program, Syracuse University, 805 South Crouse Avenue, 13210, Syracuse, New York

    Sharon L. James

  2. Medical Branch at Galveston, University of Texas, USA

    Linda M. L. Khan

Authors
  1. Sharon L. James
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  2. Linda M. L. Khan
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James, S.L., Khan, L.M.L. Grammatical morpheme acquisition: An approximately invariant order?. J Psycholinguist Res 11, 381–388 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067588

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067588

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