Meanings
present singular third person misgenerates · participle present misgenerating · participle past misgenerated · past misgenerated
- To generate incorrectly.
In the case of cyclicity what requires an explanation is why a grammar of English, which incorporates (53) in some form, does not misgenerate all the SCC violations discussed above.
2007, Robert Freidin, Generative Grammar: Theory and its History2 more examples
The evidence was misinterpreted —aside from the fact that it was misgenerated in terms of research design — and that misinterpretation was replicated in study after study after study for about 35 years.
1990, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Education and Labor. Subcommittee on Select Education, Hearing on the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, page 78A child who encounters English (1) and mistakenly takes it to be a V2 construction would acquire the wrong grammar and would then misgenerate V2 sentences that are ungrammatical in English (e.g., *Me saw John, with the object in SpecCP).
1999, Elaine C. Klein, Gita Martohardjono, The Development of Second Language Grammars, page 364
Origin
Cite this entry
misgenerate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misgenerate
“misgenerate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misgenerate. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “misgenerate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misgenerate.
Source: misgenerate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.