kitchen appliance naming institute

This week’s reading was on a study conducted by Eve V. Clark and Barbara Frant Hecht on the acquisition of productive control in using the ‘-er’ suffix in the agent and instrument contexts. They develop a model of generalizing word forms that consists of semantic transparency, productivity, and conventionality which is consistent with the gradient of acquisition that children display across age groups. The study reminded me of Mitch Hedburg’s ‘kitchen appliance naming institute' joke (https://youtu.be/0lwpS5M7hgA) in which he pokes fun at the generalization of the '-er' to nontypical appliances.

I appreciated the author’s attempt to explaining this particular phenomenon in developmental linguistics, but I was left with the feeling that their learning rule was specific to the point of not being particularly useful. That is, I wonder what underlying principles in children’s psychology and overall development would lead to the rules of semantic transparency, productivity, and conventionality being advantageous to employ.