In the early stages of morphological development, how do children primarily learn morphological forms?

In the early stages of morphological development, children primarily learn morphological forms by connecting morphemes to specific lexical forms. This approach emphasizes the role of vocabulary acquisition, where children learn to associate certain morphemes with the words they modify or create. For instance, when a child encounters the word "cats," they understand that the suffix "-s" indicates the plural form of "cat." This connection helps children grasp how morphemes function within the context of familiar words, facilitating their understanding of morphological structure through practical examples in their everyday language use.

While other options may reflect aspects of language development, they do not capture the primary mechanism of learning morphological forms at this stage. For instance, repeating specific morphological forms may occur, but it does not promote a deeper understanding of the rules governing their use. Applying morphological rules systematically represents a more advanced level of understanding that typically emerges later, as children begin to generalize and manipulate these forms. Developing metalinguistic awareness involves a conscious understanding of language structures, which is also a more complex skill that evolves over time rather than a primary method of learning in early morphological development.