Let us suppose that children learn language by adopting a series of “strategies”; whether learned or innate is immaterial here. Such strategies would clearly include generalization, one of the best-attested concomitants of acquisition. The strategy of generalization might be informally defined as follows: Step 1: Look for any regular form with a consistent core of meaning. Step 2: Apply the form in all possible environments. Step 3: Compare output with input, and note cases (if any) where these do not match. Step 4: Remove the exceptions (if any) which appear when Step 3 is applied.
- Bickerton (1981), Pag. 201