Humans relentlessly search for abstract rules that are extracted from a specific situation and then applied to new observations. This is powerful strategy since most abstract rules apply to the greatest number of situations.

A baby hears her mother say "Look at the dog". Is dog this particular individual (Scooby Doo) or is it a category of animals?

The first time babies hear the word "dog", they may think it refers to just that particular animal. But as soon as they hear it twice in different contexts, they start to think it refers to a category of animals. This category is inserted in the still developing language model and the baby can now recognize dogs in vastly different contexts.