Language & Thought

Answer choices

1. A

   Neither Passage10% picked this

   If different languages apply incompatible concepts to one and the same object, then that suggests those concepts were

   This didn't seem to come up in either passage. Perhaps the closest match, though, would be in passage A. The Spanish and German words for bridge and violin have different genders to them (that wouldn't qualify as incompatible concepts), and those gendered nouns seem to have created some different associations with the nouns bridge / violin.

   10%
2. B

   Correct50% picked this

   If a speaker possesses a concept for which the speaker’s language lacks an expression, then that suggests that the concept

   Why this is right

   Passage B definitely did this. It presents a study in which two cultures, whose language did not contain a precise expression for numbers three and higher, seem to possess a concept of number. The first sentence of Psg B's second paragraph crystallizes this idea: in showing that subjects with no verbal counting system (language lacks an expression) have a concept of approximate numerical magnitude, these reports support a language-independent view of our concept of number (the concept was not created by language) Passage A, meanwhile, doesn't provide any examples in which people have the concept but not the name. Instead, it provides examples in which the name of something influences the concept.

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

   50%
3. C

   Neither Passage10% picked this

   If one’s language prevented one from possessing certain concepts, then one would not be able to learn a language in

   This is talking about a case in a language, like some Eskimo languages for example, have unique concepts (like 20 different words for "snow"). As an native English speaker, I don't have 20 different concepts of snow. If I am able to learn Eskimo language, then according to this principle, my native English did not prevent me from possessing this concept. If this was in either passage, it would be more in Psg A, where we were spending more time discussing whether or not a language can prevent you from having certain concepts. Psg B was more about whether your language enables you to have certain concepts or whether they are there innately even if you don't have a word for it.

   10%
4. D

   Not Quite Psg B16% picked this

   If a concept can be expressed more exactly in one language than in another language, then it is likely that the concept

   This seems fairly close to the notion of exact equality discussed at the end of Psg B, but the author of Psg B doesn't arrive at the interpretation that it is likely that the concept of exact quality was created by those languages. She lays out three options and doesn't pick a winner: it may have been created by the words in numerate languages ... the words may have just facilitated the concept (not fully created it) ... or the words just direct our attention to the concept (they didn't create it at all).

   16%
5. E

   Neither Passage14% picked this

   If a language obliges speakers to think about a concept, that concept must have been obtained

   Passage A is suggesting that language obliges us to think about certain concepts in specific ways, but it never mentions whether we obtain that concept independently of language. Passage B barely talks about language obliging us to think about a concept, although he seems to think that numerate languages oblige us to think about equality with more precision. If anything, though, psg B is saying that the language gives us the concept, refines the concept, or directs us to the concept of exact equality. He doesn't indicate that we obtain exact equality independent of language (in fact he suggests the opposite, since languages without a verbal counting system show a much looser concept of equality).

   14%