wug test
E694780
The wug test is a classic psycholinguistic experiment that demonstrates children’s ability to apply grammatical rules to novel, made-up words.
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
linguistic experiment
ⓘ
morphology experiment ⓘ psycholinguistic experiment ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
adults
ⓘ
preschool children ⓘ school-age children ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| creator | Jean Berko Gleason NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| demonstrates |
children's ability to generalize grammatical rules
ⓘ
knowledge of derivational morphology ⓘ knowledge of past tense formation ⓘ knowledge of plural morpheme -s ⓘ overgeneralization of grammatical rules by children ⓘ productivity of plural formation in English ⓘ rule-governed nature of morphology ⓘ |
| field |
language acquisition research
ⓘ
linguistics ⓘ psycholinguistics ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
English plural formation
ⓘ
children's implicit grammatical knowledge ⓘ inflection of unfamiliar nouns ⓘ |
| hasNotableFeature |
controls for memorized vocabulary
ⓘ
iconic example in psycholinguistics textbooks ⓘ isolates rule application from lexical knowledge ⓘ uses made-up words that participants have never heard before ⓘ |
| hasVariant | wug test adaptations in other languages ⓘ |
| inception | 1958 ⓘ |
| influenced |
research on generative grammar and acquisition
ⓘ
subsequent nonce-word morphology experiments ⓘ |
| languageTested | English NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
children's language acquisition
ⓘ
inflectional morphology ⓘ morphological productivity ⓘ rule-based grammar ⓘ |
| namedAfter | the nonce word "wug" ⓘ |
| publishedIn | Word (journal) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| typicalPrompt | "Now there are two of them. There are two _____." ⓘ |
| typicalResponse | "wugs" ⓘ |
| typicalStimulus |
picture of a single imaginary creature labeled "wug"
ⓘ
picture of two of the same creatures prompting pluralization ⓘ |
| usedFor |
comparing child and adult grammars
ⓘ
investigating language disorders ⓘ studying first language acquisition ⓘ studying second language acquisition ⓘ testing morphological knowledge in atypical development ⓘ |
| uses |
nonsense words
ⓘ
novel words ⓘ pseudowords ⓘ |
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.