JOURNAL
A STUDY OF OVEREXTENSION AND UNDEREXTENSION OF TWO
YEAR-OLD CHILDREN IN AL-QODIRI SONGO
ISLAMIC BOARDING SCHOOL OF GRESIK
By
A. FAIZIN
NIM 2007070003
UNIVERSITAS GRESIK
FAKULTAS SASTRA
PROGRAM BAHASA INGGRIS
2011
ABSTRACT
Faizin, A. 2011 : A Study Of Overextension And Underextension Of Two Year-Old Children
In Al Qodiri Songo Islamic Boarding School of Gresik. Faculty of Letters, English
Department, University of Gresik.
Key Words : Underextension, Overextension
A child language always develops rapidly, especially his or her acquisition of words and
word meaning. Language acquisition is very similar to the process children use in acquiring
first and second languages. It requires meaningful interaction in the target language--natural
communication--in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but
with the messages they are conveying and understanding. Error correction and explicit
teaching of rules are not relevant to language acquisition
These three phenomenons are experienced by the subject and they all occured in the subject’s
utterances. In addition, Anglin’s theory of conceptual categories stated that the extensional
error phenomenon happened because the referent shared the visual, functional, and the
auditory features. In this study, the writer found the words that undergo the overextension
phenomenon based on the visual features.
This study is done within the scope of language acquisition especially on the first language
acquisition. The writer only uses one Indonesian children as the subject of this case study.
This study also focused only on the child’s utterances. The classification of the child’s
utterances was based only on the extensional error phenomenon including overextension,
underextension.
The Writer
Seliger,
1975).
Error
correction
it
is
maintained, helps the learner come to the
INTRODUCTION
correct mental representation of the linguistic
1.1 Background of Study
generalization. Whether such feedback has
Language acquisition is very similar to
this effect to a significant degree remains an
the process children use in acquiring first and
open question (Fanselow, 1977; Long, 1977).
second languages. It requires meaningful
No invariant order of learning is claimed,
interaction in the target language--natural
although syllabi implicitly claim that learners
communication--in
are
proceed from simple to complex, a sequence
concerned not with the form of their
that may not be identical to the acquisition
utterances but with the messages they are
sequence. A Child usually deals with many
conveying and understanding. Error correction
fields of study
and explicit teaching of rules are not relevant
instance, phonology, morphology, syntax,
to language acquisition (Brown and Hanlon,
pragmatics,
1970; Brown, Cazden, and Bellugi, 1973), but
Lexicology it self comes from the word
caretakers and native speakers can modify
“lexicon” which means word which have
their utterances addressed to acquirers to help
meaning (Carrol, 1994). A child language
them understand, and these modifications are
always develops rapidly, especially his or her
thought to help the acquisition process (Snow
acquisition of words and word meaning.
and Ferguson, 1977). Conscious language
According to Dardjowidjojo.(2000), llexicon
learning, on the other hand, is thought to be
is a language component with its very
helped a great deal by error correction and the
controversial acquisition becausse almost in
presentation of explicit rules (Krashen and
all lexion aspects. There is no universality for
which
speakers
in acquiring language, for
semantics,
and
lexicology.
lexicon acquisition. As a result, the word
underextension, overextension, overlap, and
types, word amounts, and word sequences are
mismatch. Underextension happens if children
different from a child to another
(
use a referential word in a range of different
Dardjowidjojo,2000). In other words, there is
situation to refer to only a subset of the full
considerable individual variation in patterns of
range of objects. In addition overextension is a
early vocabulary growth. In addition, young
phenomenon when children use a refential
children typically acquire their first words
word to refer not only to all of the subjects,
about nine to twelve month of age. By the
but also to refer to some further inappropriate
time that they are two or two and a half years
subject. Also, a word is overextended to refer
old, they may have acquired up to 500 word or
in appropriate referents but is only used to
more ( Fletcher & Mac Whinney, 1995).
refer to some and not all of the appropriate
Furthermore, Nelson (1973) found that the
adult referents.
average age at which the children had
when there is no overlap at all between the
acquired ten words was 15 months (with a
referential scope of the child’s word and the
range of 13-19 month),the average age at
referential
which the children had acquired fifty words
Furthermore, overextension can be based
was 20 months (with a range of 14-24 month),
either upon perceptual features which are
and the average vocabulary size at 24 months
share with the initial referent of the word, or
of age was hundred and eighty six words
upon functional features which are shared with
(range 28-436 words).
that referent. Of these four phenomena, it is
However, during the period of early
the
scope
phenomena
A mismatch happens
of
of
the
adult
underextension
word.
and
lexical acquition, children usually experience
overextension which have recaived the most
the extensional error phenomenon. Such as
attension, particularly in connection with
children’s acquisition of object names (
Choose to conduct the research on them
Fletcher & Mac Whinney,1995). Related to
espesially doing the observation on his
this fact, the writer,once,has heard that David
overextension,
and Lia the writer’s subject for this research,
mismatch in his first language acquition,
said “itu ayam (That is a Chicken) instead of
which is Indonesia languange, Morever, the
‘itu bebek’(That is a duck’), although the
writer chooses this topic because up to know
animal is really bebek (a duck). At the first
there are only few people who have done
time, the writer thought that may be David and
research on overextension, underextension,
Lia were wrong in saying the word ayam (a
and mismatch in Indonesia language Thus,
chicken) that moment, but later, he kept
the writer decides to conduct a research on
saying the word ayam (a chicken)for an
this topic. The writer decides to observe the
animal caleed bebek (a duck).
development of Indonesia language rather
Due to this situation, the writer was
wondering
why
these
extension
error
phenomenon happened. However, after
reading
many
books
about
language
acquisition and development of children’s
language, the writer knows that it is an
overextension
phenomenon.
This
phenomenon is also experienced by David
and Lia, the writer the research. David is a
two year-old Indonesian boy’ and Lia is a
two years- old Indonesian girl. The writer
undeerextension,
and
than English because the writer knows that
David has not mastered English yet, as the
other two year old boys.s
extensional
error
occur
children
in
Also, the
phenomenons
in
first
usually
language
acquisition. Hence, it will be quite difficult
for the writer if he observes the extensional
error phenomenon in children’s second
language, for example, English or Javanish.
Therefore, the writer decides to do research
on Indonesia language rather than any other
languages for David and Lia are in process
of
acquiring
Indonesia
The writer thinks that this topic is
language.
worth investigating because up to now, most
Furthermore, the writer chooses two years
of the parents do not notice and pay
old as the target age because at that age,
attention to
their children who are
there is a possibility for child to experience
experiencing
the
the extensional error phenomenon on their
phenomenon, for example, overextension,
utterances or their spoken language in
underextension and mismatch. Parent do not
acquiring their first language. Due to this
notice these phenomenons because parent
fact, it will be a lot easier for the writer to
usually understand the referents of the
observe and take note the phenomenon
child’s
experienced
overextension,
by
David
and
Lia
utterances
extensional
even
though
error
it
is
underextension.
Overextension, along with three other
Consequently, parents do not need to correct
phenomena, often happens to children in
it and they usually tend to ignore this
their early age. That is why ; the writer
phenomenon. However, actually it is not a
wants to do a research on lexical error,
good decision to let the children produce the
especially on overextension, underextension
overextension and underextension for long
and mismatch of two years old Indonesian
period because later on, it might be very
children. Beside the writer thinks by doing a
difficult to revise those phenomenon. Beside
reserch and analysis on it. The writer will
by doing this research, the writer hopes that
find
error
the result of this study can add more
phenomenon and the usage pattern of the
knowledge about the extensional error
extensional error phenomenon in David and
phenomenon of a child in Indonesian
Lia ‘s utterance.
language. Hence, the writer conducts this
out
about
the
extensional
research in order to make parents understand
all, the writer wants to finds out about
more about the common error during the
thr
lexical development of a child.
experienced by children of Indonesia in
In this research, the research
problem is to find out the extensional
error phenomenon experienced by a
child in acquiring his first language.
For the investigation, the research
questions are formulated as follows:
1. What word that undergo the
overextension
and
underextension phenomenon in
phenomenon
the writer wants to find out about the
referent
of
the
overextension
and
underextension phenomenon in David’s
and Lia’s utterances. In addition, the
writer
also
wants
to
reveal
the
phenomenon which occurs frequently in
David and Lia’s utterances. Finally, the
writer wants to find out about the pattern
of the extensional error phenomenon in
David and Lia’s utterances in acquiring
David and Lia utterances ?
phenomenon
error
acquiring their first language. Second,
1.2 Statement of the Problem
2. Which
extensional
occurs
frequently in David and Lia’s
utterances ?
3. What is the pattern of the
extensional error phenomenon in
David and Lia’s utterances ?
1.3 Purpose of the Study
In conducting this study, the writer
of this thesis has some purposes. First of
their first language.
1.4 Significance of the Study
Through the result of the study, the
writer
wants
overextension
to
and
show
about
the
underextension
phenomenon in a two years old children
in acquiring their first language. The
writer also hopes that the result of the
study can add more knowledge about the
of
in analyzing the child’s utterance in
children in Indonesian language. Beside
order to see the process of early lexical
, the writer also wants to give more
development of a two year old children
attention in the process of early lexical
in Al Qodiri Songo Islamic boarding
development of a two years children in
School in acquiring a two year old
acquiring his first language. Hopefully ,
children in acquiring their first language.
extensional
the
finding
error
of
phenomenon
this
research
will
contribute something to other students
especially for those who are doing
linguistics research and take language
1.5 Definition of Key Terms
in
order
to
make
the
readers
understand easily about this study, the writer
gives definition of key terms as follows :
acquisition as their topic of research.
1. Lexicon (Carroll, 1994) :
1.4 Scope and Limitation
This study is done within the scope
of language acquisition especially on the
first language acquisition. The writer
only uses one children as the subject of
this case study. This study also focused
only on the child’s utterances. The
classification of the child’s utterances
was based only on the extensional error
phenomenon including overextension
and
underextension.
These
three
extensional error phenomenon are used
Words that have meanings
2. Utterance (Soekemi, 2000) :
Any strecth of talk, by one person,
before and after which there is a
silence on the part of that person
3. Overextension ( Fletcher & Mac
Whinney, 1995) :
A condition where the children use a
referential word to refer not only to
all of the objects, actions, states, or
properties which are properly labeled
with that word in the adult language,
but also to refer to some farther
methodology. In chapter three, there are
inappropriate
general approach, the subject, the data
subjects,
states,
actions, or properties as well.
collection and the data analysis. Chapter
4. Underextension ( Fletcher & Mac
four consist of the analysis and findings
Whinney, 1995) :
of the overextension and underextension,
A condition where the children use
and the last chapter. Chapter five is the
the a referential word in a range of
conclusion of this research.
different situation to refer to only a
1.7 CONCLUSION
subset of the full range of subjects,
states, actions, or properties which
are properly labeled with that word
in the adult language.
1.6 Organization of the Study
This research paper consists
of the five chapters. The first chapter is
The conclude from the analysis of
this research, the writer believes that rhe
theory of conceptual categories by Anglin
and
the
theory
of
extensional
error
phenomenon by Fletcher and Whinney are
in
accordance
with
the repondent’s
utterance description.
Introduction. The background of the
study, the scope and limitation, the
definition of the key terms, and the
organization of the study are included in
this chapter. Chapter two is the review of
related literature, which consists of the
review to the related theory and the
review to related study. Chapter three is
According to Fletcher and Whinney, there
four extensional errror phenomenons that
will be experienced by a child during their
lexical acquisition, which are overextension,
underextension, mismatch, and overlap.
However, the writer only analyses the first
three
phenomenons.
These
three
phenomenons are experienced by the subject
and they all occured in the subject’s
utterances. In addition, Anglin’s theory of
conceptual
categories
stated
that
the
extensional error phenomenon happened
because the referent shared the visual,
functional, and the auditory features. In this
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Fanselow,J.F.1977. The treatment of error
in oral work. Foreign Language Annals 10
(5) 583-595.
study, the writer found the words that
undergo the overextension phenomenon
based on the visual features. They are
Merah’, Ayam’, Buku’, Bunga’, Kerbau’,
Pipit’, Hp’, Pisau, Bantal, Kaset, Sendok,
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about
the
Underextension
phenomenon
based on the visual feature. They are bantal
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psycholinguistics. USA : Harcourt Brace
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Surabaya : Unesa University Surabaya
Furthermore, the writerdid not find any
word that became the extensional error
phenomenon only because of auditory
feature. Thus, the writer conlude that the
children have already experienced the
extensional error phenomenon.
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London : Cambridge University Press.
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J.,
&
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T.
1978
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