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Linguist: Each language has a word that captures a concept or emotional state in a way that no other language does. To capture such a breadth of expression, an artificial language should be created that contains words corresponding to all the different concepts and emotional states captured by the world’s languages. That is not to say that such a language would contain as many words as there are in all the world’s languages. Rather, only for those words that have no corresponding word in another language. While such a plan is hugely ambitious, the resulting language would be more thorough than any existing language.
The
conclusion drawn above depends on which of the following assumptions?
Title
Linguist: Each language
Your Result
Correct
Difficulty
Hard
Your Pace
0:29
Others' Pace
2:01
Video Explanation
Text Explanation
The best way to approach this question is by identifying the conclusion. The conclusion is the half of the final sentence: “While such a plan is hugely ambitious, the resulting language would be more thorough than any existing language.” Therefore, we need an answer choice that lends directly to the idea that the resulting language will be THE most thorough language.
When describing the pieces of a language the author states, “an artificial language should be created that contains words corresponding to all the different concepts and emotional states captured by the world’s languages”. In fact, the only pieces of a language that are mentioned are concepts and emotional states. So, the author makes the assumption that in order to be thorough, a language must have these two pieces and the author doesn’t introduce any other pieces of language. Therefore, answer choice (E) is correct. The author doesn’t even consider any other aspects of language that could make it more “thorough”.
There is no comparison made between languages that exist and those that do not. Therefore, answer choice (A) is incorrect.
Answer choice (B) would make it more difficult to create such an artificial language, but that doesn’t mean that it would any less thorough. There is no direct relationship between the author’s thoughts on the thoroughness of language and overlapping meanings. Therefore, answer choice (B) is incorrect.
The existence of native speakers has no bearing on the thoroughness of the artificial language. The author does not introduce any type of relationship between native speakers or extinct languages and the thoroughness of the artificial language. Therefore, answer choice (C) is also incorrect.
Even if there was one person that could learn all of the world’s languages, that would have no bearing on how thorough the artificial language would be. Therefore, answer choice (D) is also incorrect.
Key Takeaways
Always identify the conclusion of a CR passage first, especially when it comes to assumption questions.
For assumptions questions like this, be certain that you can form a logical bridge between the assumption and the conclusion. If you cannot, then the answer choice is most likely incorrect.
Related Lessons
Watch the lessons below for more detailed explanations of the concepts tested in this question. And don't worry, you'll be able to return to this answer from the lesson page.
