Definitions by linguisticky

wug

A drawing of a bird-like creature created by linguist Jean Berko Gleason as part of a study into the linguistic patterns of children. The experiment was meant to test if children had an intuitive understanding of the English noun pluralization system, and could apply it to a word they had never heard before. The results, which showed that children did indeed have this ability, refuted claims such as those by psychologist B.F. Skinner that language consisted only of learned behavior through reinforcement and memorization.

This is a wug. Now there are two of them. There are two ___.

wug by linguisticky June 12, 2026