overgeneralization
UK[ˌəʊvəˌdʒenrəlaɪˈzeɪʃn]US[ˌoʊvərˌdʒenrələˈzeɪʃn]
n
The act or process of forming a conclusion that is too broad or universal based on limited evidence or specific instances.
n
In linguistics, the application of a grammatical rule to cases where it does not apply, often observed in child language acquisition.
Morpheme Breakdown
over
general
ization
over
excessive
general
broad
ization
process of making
Etymology
The word is a modern English formation built from three distinct layers. The prefix 'over,' with Proto-Germanic origins, conveys the sense of excess. The core 'general' stems from the Latin genus (race, kind), which evolved through French to mean "common to all." The suffix '-ization' is a Latinate compound indicating the action or process of making something. Thus, the term's literal logic is "the process of making something excessively broad or common," which perfectly captures its modern psychological and linguistic meanings of applying a rule or conclusion too widely.
Analysis
Structure: over (excessive) + general (broad) + ization (process of making)
- over: From Old English ofer, meaning "above, beyond, excessively." It functions as a prefix indicating excess.
- general: From Latin generalis (pertaining to a whole class), via Old French. It functions as an adjective root meaning "broad, common to all."
- ization: A suffix from Latin -izare (via Greek -izein) combined with the noun-forming suffix -ation. It denotes the process or result of making something.
Examples
The child's overgeneralization of the "-ed" rule led to errors like "goed" instead of "went."
A common cognitive bias is the overgeneralization from a single negative experience.
The study examined overgeneralization in machine learning algorithms when training data is limited.