Between 18 months and five years of age, a vocabulary explosion will occur quickly and exponentially. Overextension and underextension are two common technical errors children make in language development. Overextension occurs when a child applies a word too broadly, leading to confusion, while underextension limits the use of words to one specific set of objects or situations.
Underextension occurs when a child doesn’t use a word for enough particular cases, the opposite of overextension where a child uses a word for too many different cases. For example, a child might restrict the word ‘dog’ by only using it for their specific individual ball. Underextension occurs when a categorical term is used improperly by only using it for one object.
Underextension is a similar verbal stumble, though not as common an occurrence. In this case, a child uses a more general word to refer to a particular thing, such as “baba”. Underextension is a common semantic error made by children, as they give a word a narrower meaning than it has in adult language.
In summary, underextension and overextension are two common technical errors children make in language development. Overextension occurs when a child applies a word too broadly, leading to confusion, while underextension limits the use of words to one specific set of objects or situations. Understanding these differences can help parents and educators support children’s language learning and development.
📹 AcqOfLang1: Underextension and Overextension
Acquisition of Language 1: Underextension and overextension errors in children’s lexical development.
What is an underextension word?
Underextension is a phenomenon where a child acquires a word for a specific object and fails to extend it to other objects in the same category, using the word in a highly restricted and individualistic way. This error can also apply to verbs, such as the verb “sit”. Although underextension is generally thought to be less common than overextension, recent research shows an increasing number of reports of it. Margaret Harris identifies two types of underextension: context-bound and contextually flexible.
Context-bound underextension occurs when a child produces a word only in a limited and specific context, such as when a child uses the word “duck” when hitting a toy duck or “chuff-chuff” when pushing a toy train. Context-flexible underextension, on the other hand, involves restricting a word to a particular referent instead of a particular situation, suggesting that children are using words in a genuinely referential way. Examples of this type of underextension include the use of “clock” only to refer to wall clocks and “light” only to ceiling lights with a shade.
What is an example of overextension in child development?
Overextension is defined as the phenomenon whereby young children extend the referents of known words beyond the boundaries of their vocabulary. This can be observed in the extension of words such as “dog” to refer to a squirrel, “ball” to refer to a balloon, or “key” to refer to a door.
What is lexical underextension?
The term “quick reference” is used to describe a child’s interpretation of a word during the process of language development. This phenomenon often occurs during the second or third year of a child’s life and involves the child understanding a word to mean only a portion of its conventional meaning. This phenomenon can occur when a child misinterprets a word as a proper noun, leading to overextension, overgeneralization, and mismatch.
Which example demonstrates underextension?
Underextension is a phenomenon where a child acquires a word for a specific object and fails to extend it to other objects in the same category, using the word in a highly restricted and individualistic way. This error can also apply to verbs, such as the verb “sit”. Although underextension is generally thought to be less common than overextension, recent research shows an increasing number of reports of it. Margaret Harris identifies two types of underextension: context-bound and contextually flexible.
Context-bound underextension occurs when a child produces a word only in a limited and specific context, such as when a child uses the word “duck” when hitting a toy duck or “chuff-chuff” when pushing a toy train. Context-flexible underextension, on the other hand, involves restricting a word to a particular referent instead of a particular situation, suggesting that children are using words in a genuinely referential way. Examples of this type of underextension include the use of “clock” only to refer to wall clocks and “light” only to ceiling lights with a shade.
Which child is exhibiting underextension?
A child’s understanding of a word’s meaning can be influenced by various factors, including cultural influences, first words, and telegraphic speech. Underextension refers to the child thinking that a word can only be used for a specific object, while overextension refers to the child thinking that a label applies to all objects similar to the original object.
First words in English are often nouns, while in verb-friendly languages like Chinese, children may learn more verbs due to cultural differences in object emphasis. Chinese children may be taught to notice action and relationships between objects, while children from the United States may be taught to name an object and its qualities.
Telegraphic speech, or text message speech, occurs when children use words to convey messages, but not articles or other parts of speech for grammatical correctness. This speech can sound like a telegraph or read like a text message, with unnecessary words often used together.
What is overextension error in child development?
Overextension is a natural part of language development in children, where a child uses a single word to refer to multiple objects or concepts, instead of using different words for different things. This is a normal and natural part of language development that all children go through, as they are still learning new words and concepts. For example, a toddler may use the word “dog” to refer to all four-legged animals, including cats, pigs, and cows. Overextension is a gradual process that happens over time, and parents should not be worried about their child’s overextension.
What is underextension in child development examples?
Underextension, also referred to as undergeneralization, represents a failure to utilize a word across its full adult range. This can be exemplified by limiting the use of the word “dog” to refer solely to the family pet. This is frequently attributable to children’s difficulty in differentiating between intrinsic and accidental characteristics of objects, as evidenced by their tendency to refer to a dog as a dog.
What is an example of underextension error?
Underextension occurs when a child incorrectly restricts the use of a word, such as referring to their pet dog as a “dog” but not to other dogs outside. Telegraphic speech is condensed speech that only contains the central components of the speech, such as nouns and verbs, and excludes the connective parts. For example, a child might say “give toy” instead of “please give me the toy”. These types of speech errors can hinder a child’s language development and understanding.
What is the difference between overextension and underextension?
Underextension is a condition where a child uses a word for too many specific cases, unlike overextension where a word is used for too many different cases. This occurs during the Two Word stage, which typically begins around 18-24 months and continues for several months. During this stage, 11 consonant sounds are typically included, with a vocabulary of 50 or more words. Clear syntactic and semantic relations begin to appear, but syntactic or morphological markers are not present. Inflectional affixes and pronouns are rare.
Despite being linguistically distinct, child utterances are different from adult native speakers due to lack of full syntactic markings and limited vocabulary size. It is unclear whether the child’s perspective is constrained by the lack of vocabulary or whether the size of the vocabulary is constrained by the childish perspective. The interrelationship of language and thought is crucial in understanding this phenomenon.
What is overextension vs underextension examples?
Children often make semantic errors, such as underextension and overextension, when they use words with broader meanings. Underextension occurs when a word is given a narrower meaning in adult language, while overextension occurs when a word is given a broader, more general meaning. For example, a child might use the word “dog” only for the family dog, while overextension occurs when a word is given a broader, more general meaning. Both errors can be detrimental to a child’s early language development.
What is the difference between underextension and overextension group of answer choices?
The term “underextension” is used to describe the act of applying a word in a manner that is more narrow than its typical usage. Conversely, the term “overextension” is used to describe the act of applying a word in a manner that is more expansive than its typical usage.
📹 UNDEREXTENSION
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