Grammatical morphemes are the smallest units of language that carry meaning or serve a grammatical function. They include inflectional endings (such as plural -s, past tense -ed), prefixes, suffixes, and small function words (like articles or prepositions) that modify or refine a word’s meaning. Children typically acquire the core English grammatical morphemes by around age four, as these “little” words and endings are crucial for constructing grammatically correct sentences.
Brown, Roger. A First Language: The Early Stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973. Link
Rosenzweig, Elizabeth. “Grammatical Morphemes: Precious, Fleeting, and Oh-So-Important.” Auditory Verbal Therapy (blog), February 8, 2011. Link
