Which term means when a child's definition of a word is too broad?

Which term means when a child's definition of a word is too broad?

• A. Overextend
• B. Comprehensible Input
• C. Denotion
• D. Phonology

Answer: (A)

This question focuses on how a child’s word meanings expand during early language development. When a child uses a word too broadly, that’s overextension: they apply a single term to a wider range of objects or ideas than adults do. For example, calling every four-legged animal “dog” or using the word “car” for all moving vehicles. This shows the child is actively mapping words to categories and testing boundaries as their vocabulary grows; with more experience, their usage becomes more precise. Comprehensible input refers to language that a learner can understand, denotation is the exact meaning or the set of things a word refers to, and phonology is the system of sounds in a language. These describe different concepts than overextension.

This question focuses on how a child’s word meanings expand during early language development. When a child uses a word too broadly, that’s overextension: they apply a single term to a wider range of objects or ideas than adults do. For example, calling every four-legged animal “dog” or using the word “car” for all moving vehicles. This shows the child is actively mapping words to categories and testing boundaries as their vocabulary grows; with more experience, their usage becomes more precise.

Comprehensible input refers to language that a learner can understand, denotation is the exact meaning or the set of things a word refers to, and phonology is the system of sounds in a language. These describe different concepts than overextension.