A child who, at an early age, used irregular verb forms correctly (using grow and its past tense grew) suddenly began using growed instead of grew. This child
A) is regressing to a more comfortable state instead of learning to abstract the rules of grammar.
B) is extracting the rules for how to form tenses and applying those generalizations to words that seem similar.
C) has had an inadequate amount of parental input into the language learning process.
D) needs more intense educational programs to learn the rules of grammar.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This phenomenon is known as overgeneralization, where a child applies general grammatical rules to words that are exceptions to the rule. It indicates that the child is learning and applying the rules of grammar, even though they are mistakenly applying them to irregular verbs.

A Child Who, at an Early Age, Used Irregular Verb