OVER-EXTENSION

In language acquisition, the use of a lexical item to refer to a wider range of entities than is normal in adult usage. For example, the word DUCKmight be extended to many more types of bird than the adult concept would admit. Over-extension can involve up to a third of an infant’s early words and is common up to the age of about 2 years 6 months. The child’s reasons for including items within a concept often seem to be based upon similarities of shape; but size, texture, sound and movement are also important defining features. Other over extensions reflect similarity of function or association with the same event (NAP to refer to a blanket).

Some over-extensions involve a whole series of loosely linked common features called by Vygotsky a chain complex. An infant was found to apply the term QUAH (= ‘quack’) to a duck on a pond, then extend it to any liquid including milk in a bottle, to a coin with an eagle on it and from that to all round coin-like objects.

Several reasons have been suggested for over-extension. The child may simply have unformed impressions of the world and thus be unable to recognise similarities between items. Or it may be using an approximate word for a concept for which it does not yet have a term. Or it may be actively engaged in forming concepts: imposing patterns upon its experience and learning by trial and error which items are classed together. One version of this last view suggests that the child is trying to assemble a range of exemplars in order to form a prototype for a particular concept.

The opposite phenomenon, under-extension, also occurs, but rather less frequently. It may be the result of a word being acquired in a way that is too dependent upon context. A child might apply WHITE to snow but not to a blank page or DEEP to a swimming pool but not to a puddle.

See also: Concept formation, Mapping, Over-generalisation

Further reading: Aitchison (2003: Chap. 16); Clark (2001); Kuczaj (1999); Neisser (1987)

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

قسم العلاقات العامّة ينظّم برنامجًا ثقافيًّا لأكثر من 100 طالب من حفظة القرآن الكريم في النجف

قسم شؤون المعارف يختتم دورة حول تحقيق المخطوطات في جامعة كربلاء

قسم الشؤون الطبية يطلق برنامجًا تدريبيًّا لملاكاته بالتعاون مع مستشفى الكفيل التخصصي

قسم الشؤون الفكرية يطلق مشروعًا وطنيًّا لتوثيق ضحايا جرائم نظام البعث في العراق

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

هل توقيت نشاطك اليومي يؤثر على صحة دماغك؟.. العلماء يجيبون

"مشروب محبوب" يخفي فوائد لا يعرفها كثيرون

طبيب يكشف 5 أنواع للسعال.. بعضها خطير

نقص فيتامينات "خفي".. قد يفسّر التعب والتنميل وقلة التركيز

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

دراسة: تغيّرات في أسلوب القيادة قد تكشف مبكرا عن الخرف !

عمرها 773 ألف سنة.. اكتشاف أقدم أحافير بشرية في المغرب

"اختراق علمي".. اختبار دم في منزلك قد يكشف ألزهايمر

ماذا يحدث للجسم عند قطع الكافيين فجأة؟

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Primary and compound metaphors

Primary Metaphor Theory

Hiding and highlighting

The conceptual nature of metaphor

Invariance

Metaphors and image schemas

Metaphor systems

Metaphorical entailments

Motivation for target and source

The unidirectionality of metaphor

Conceptual Metaphor Theory

What is metaphor?