Provide an example of underextension.

Provide an example of underextension.

• A. Calling all four-legged animals 'dog'.
• B. Calling the family dog 'dog' and no other dogs.
• C. Calling only the family dog 'dog' and no other dogs.
• D. Using 'dog' to label a dog in a picture.

Answer: (C)

Underextension happens when a child uses a word more narrowly than adults do, applying it to only a single member of a category rather than to all members. The best example is using the word for only the family dog and not for any other dogs. This shows the child’s mental category for that word is still quite limited and hasn’t generalized to all dogs. As vocabulary grows, children typically broaden the label to include other dogs as well. By contrast, using a word for all four-legged animals would be overgeneralization, not underextension. Labeling a dog seen in a picture isn’t by itself a clear example of underextension; it depends on whether the label is being extended only to that one dog or to all dogs, which isn’t explicitly shown in that scenario.

Underextension happens when a child uses a word more narrowly than adults do, applying it to only a single member of a category rather than to all members. The best example is using the word for only the family dog and not for any other dogs. This shows the child’s mental category for that word is still quite limited and hasn’t generalized to all dogs. As vocabulary grows, children typically broaden the label to include other dogs as well. By contrast, using a word for all four-legged animals would be overgeneralization, not underextension. Labeling a dog seen in a picture isn’t by itself a clear example of underextension; it depends on whether the label is being extended only to that one dog or to all dogs, which isn’t explicitly shown in that scenario.