Morphology plays a central role in language structure, yet its processing remains less explored than phonological, syntactic, or semantic processing and is often overlooked in clinical and educational models. Investigating morphological processing requires fine-grained analysis essential for understanding how morphology supports language acquisition and use, and how it may aid populations with atypical linguistic profiles.

While most studies concentrate on typically developing adults, research on children already reveals how morphology interacts with lexical development. For instance, recent findings in European Portuguese show that children process denominal and deverbal agent nouns more quickly than simplex agent nouns—whereas adults display the opposite pattern. These results suggest that children, whose lexicons are still developing, may rely more on morphological cues for word recognition and comprehension.

Age-related conditions or later-life language pathologies may likewise reveal distinctive morphological processing patterns, highlighting the need for research spanning the entire lifespan.