Which morpheme category includes the irregular past tense form 'went' in Brown's stages?

Which morpheme category includes the irregular past tense form 'went' in Brown's stages?

• A. Past irregular
• B. Present progressive
• C. Telegraphic
• D. Articles

Answer: (A)

The form went is the irregular past tense of the verb go, which doesn’t follow the regular -ed pattern like walked or jumped. Brown treated irregular past tense as its own morpheme category because these forms require memorization of a special, non- -ed change rather than applying a single rule. So, went fits the irregular past tense category: it marks past tense in a way that isn’t produced by the regular past-tense morpheme. For contrast, the present progressive would involve a form like going with the -ing suffix; telegraphic speech refers to the omission of function words in early speech; and articles are the determiners a/the, not a past-tense marker.

The form went is the irregular past tense of the verb go, which doesn’t follow the regular -ed pattern like walked or jumped. Brown treated irregular past tense as its own morpheme category because these forms require memorization of a special, non- -ed change rather than applying a single rule. So, went fits the irregular past tense category: it marks past tense in a way that isn’t produced by the regular past-tense morpheme.

For contrast, the present progressive would involve a form like going with the -ing suffix; telegraphic speech refers to the omission of function words in early speech; and articles are the determiners a/the, not a past-tense marker.