Udnerasdf

Underextension

Underextension is when a person uses a word in a very restricted fashion, most commonly seen used by children that are just gaining mastery over language. To give an example of underextension, a young boy that sees a dog in the park will not say it is a dog, for only THEIR dog is a dog. In their mind, they think that a word is referring to a very specific instance of a certain concept other than all types and examples of the concept. You may point at the strange dog in the park, but the child would shake their head and tell you no. Upon getting home, they will point at Howard lying in the corner and say “Dog!” Bear with them, they are learning.

Overextension

Overextension is the direct opposite of underextension, in which they use a word in too broad a manner, often speaking in overgeneralizations. To continue in the example above, but in the form of overextension, the young boy is once again in the park, but this time, he sees a police officer riding on a horse, points, at the horse and says “Dog!” It is obviously not a dog, but to the young boy, anything with four legs and not a person is a “dog”. While this is of course flawed speech, it is a sign that the child is advancing in their thought processes. The child is now starting to develop mental categories and concepts and will soon be able to distinguish horse from dog.

Overregularization

Overregularization leads many young children to talk about foots, tooths, sheeps, and mouses. They may even put the -s on adjectives when the adjectives are acting as nouns, as in this dinner-table exchange between my 3-year-old and her father:

Sarah: I want somes.

Father: You want some what?

Sarah: I want some mores.

Father: Some more what?

Sarah: I want some more chickens.

Although technically wrong, overregularization is actually a sign of verbal sophistication: it shows that children are applying the rules. Indeed, as young children become more conscious of grammatical usages, they exhibit...