What is over-regularization in language development?

Over-regularization in language development refers to the phenomenon where children apply regular grammatical rules too broadly, resulting in incorrect forms. For instance, a child may use "goed" instead of "went" or "falled" instead of "fell," creating non-standard forms because they are applying the rule that regular verbs in English typically form their past tense by adding -ed. This reflects a child's understanding of language structure and rules, even though they have not yet mastered all exceptions.

The focus of over-regularization lies in how children are learning and applying the rules of grammar during their development. It highlights their cognitive processing as they experiment with language and often leads to an interesting period of linguistic growth that eventually resolves as they learn to navigate the complexities of language more accurately.