According to Brown's morphemes, which factor determines the order of morpheme acquisition?

• A. Phonological ease of production
• B. Figurative-language ability
• C. Semantic and syntactic complexity
• D. Sequencing and segmentation strategies

Answer: (C)

The order in which children learn morphemes, according to Brown, is driven by semantic and syntactic complexity. Morphemes that mark clear, concrete grammatical relationships and appear in many contexts—like indicating ongoing action or marking plurality—are learned first because their function is straightforward and highly productive in sentence structure. As children’s language grows, they encounter morphemes that require more abstract rules, agreement, or memory for irregular forms, which makes them harder and thus later to acquire. This explains the relatively fixed sequence Brown observed across children and why factors like phonological ease or figurative language use don’t determine the order.