What is Language

Answer choices

1. A

   Wrong Point of View5% picked this

   offer support for the view of linguists who believe that language has an essential

   This paragraph is focused on side 2 of the debate among linguists. This answer reflects side 1.

   5%
2. B

   Correct61% picked this

   elaborate the position of linguists who believe that truth is merely a

   Why this is right

   The fact that this focuses on side 2 of the debate among linguists should make us keep it on our first pass. The fact that it doesn't address the application of this thinking to math and science might give us pause but shouldn't be grounds for elimination because the transition into and out of P3 is all about the linguists. Ultimately, it ends up being the best answer we're given, even though it lacks a component from our prediction.

   Skill tested: Paragraph Purpose · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

   61%
3. C

   Unsupported Comparison3% picked this

   illustrate the differences between the essentialist and conventionalist positions in the

   P3 isn't about elaborating the differences between the two debated positions. It focuses exclusively on position 2.

   3%
4. D

   Unsupported Comparison25% picked this

   demonstrate the similarity of the linguists’ debate to a current debate among scientists about the

   This answer gives us both the linguists and the scientists, and it calls back to the question posed in P1 about the nature of scientific explanation. That probably makes this one a keeper on the first pass. But there is a difference between applying a principle to a situation and demonstrating the similarity between two positions. P3 gives us clear application language and no explicitly comparative language: "Certainly this characterization would seem applicable to the sciences. In science...Under this view..." We're also never told that there is a current debate among scientists about the nature of explanation. If we research this callback to P1, we see an attribution: "Some thinkers hold..." While this often sets us up for a debate, we never actually get a second set of scientists that are debating this point of view. The only debate we're ever given is that of the linguists. Those two qualms are grounds to eliminate this very tempting trap answer.

   25%
5. E

   Wrong Point of View6% picked this

   explain the theory that mathematical statements are a kind

   The theory that math is a kind of language is expressed in P1. It's what some thinkers believe, and it forms the basis for the application of the linguists' position to the sciences in P3. But P3 isn't designed to explain this theory. It's primarily focused on the point of view of the 2nd camp of linguists: those who think the relationship between language and things is a matter of convention.

   6%