Logical Reasoning

PT107 · S1 · Q16 We can learn about the living conditions

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We can learn about the living conditions of a vanished culture by examining its language.

Conclusion (Thus)

It's likely that the people who spoke Proto-Indo-European lived in a cold climate, isolated from ocean or sea.

Evidence (because)

Proto-Indo-European lacks a word for "sea", but has words for "winter", "snow" and "wolf".

Evaluate

The author seems to be making a pretty direct assumption from "do you have a word for it" to "was it something that was in your life".

He thinks, .

And he thinks,

This is definitely a questionable assumption to be making. The German language has a word, "schadenfreude", which means "taking pleasure in the misery of others". Can we say that since American English doesn't have a word for that feeling, that American English speakers don't experience that feeling in their lives?

Goal

We want to make it seem like or .

Or we want any other answer that would help us argue that the people who spoke Proto-Indo-European didn't live somewhere cold, or weren't isolated from ocean or sea (i.e. something that helps us make the case that they lived in a warm climate or they had exposure to the ocean/sea).

16.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

  1. A word meaning “fish” was

    Unclear Impact

    To this author, if they had a word for fish, then they had fish in their lives. Does that help us argue that they actually did have exposure the ocean/sea? Not really, since you could easily know about fish by living near a lake or a river, in which fish also live.

    26% picked this

  2. Correct

    Some languages lack words for

    Why this is right

    This is weakly worded, so not hugely tempting on a first pass, but it does directly target the assumption the author is making. He thinks, "If the ocean/sea was a prominent element of the environment where these people lived, then they would have a word for sea." But this answer reminds the author that you can't make such an automatic move, since some languages lack words for things that are nonetheless prominent in their environment.

    Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    55% picked this

  3. There are no known languages

    No Impact

    We don't really have any interest in modern languages. If they told us that some modern languages, despite living near the sea, had no word for sea, that would weaken in the same way that the correct answer does. But this is saying everyone has a word for sea, so if anything this helps the author.

    2% picked this

  4. Proto-Indo-European possesses words for “heat.”

    Unclear Impact

    To this author, if they had a word for heat, then they had heat in their lives. Does that help us argue that they actually did live in a warm climate? Not really, since you could easily know about heat by standing around the fire, in a cold climate.

    7% picked this

  5. The people who spoke Proto-Indo-European

    Very Weak Impact

    This might be tempting because we could say, "Hey, author --- since these people were nomadic, even if they were sometimes in a cold climate and sometimes isolated from ocean or sea, at other times they wouldn't have been." That's not a realistic mental picture of what range of territory a nomadic tribe inhabits. All travel is by foot, so a nomadic tribe that starts in central Montana (a cold climate, isolated from ocean or sea), can wander all their days and easily never make it to Arizona or to the Pacific Ocean. If you picture the range of a nomadic tribe being maybe 100 miles in every direction, that's only an area as big as a Rhode Island. That sort of region could easily exist entirely within a cold climate / entirely in isolation from ocean/sea.

    11% picked this

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