#25 - Native speakers perceive sentences of their own language as sequences

[bearcats123]

Can someone pleas explain this question and break it down for me please!!
Thank you in advance!

[Robert Carroll]

bear,

The author's conclusion is that a certain perception is an illusion - the perception that sentences in a native speakers' language are sequences of separate words. The author points out that certain people perceive some sentences differently. So the point of the author is that, because there are different perceptions of the same phenomenon by different people, one of these perceptions is not correct, but is merely an illusion.

Let's consider an analogous situation - you look out my back door and claim to see a stump on the ground. I claim to see a discarded potted plant. Is my perception an illusion? Is yours? It's at least possible that one of us is right - in fact, in this case, I probably would be, because, in fact, I discarded a potted plant a few months ago into the forest behind my house, and it looks remarkably like a stump.

Similarly, in this situation, native speakers and travelers perceive sentences of a language in different ways. Why must native speakers be subject to an illusion merely because someone perceives things differently? The author's argument seems to rely on the assumption that, if there is a disagreement between the two groups, we can't inherently rely on the native speakers' being a lot better at perception of their own languages. This is the idea that answer choice (E) is getting at.

Let me know if there is anything else I can do to explain this one!

Robert Carroll

[Christmaspuppy]

I don't understand why answer E is the correct answer. The argument only says a perception is an illusion. And answer E only goes one way as " not more accurate than", which equals to "no better than" in some way. But why we ignored the another way as it could be better than the perception? Non-native speakers hear the language as uninterrupted sound. Native speakers could hear the sentence like conjunction of some phrases. They could hear the language more accurate than just distinct words. I don't know whether I made my point clear. The thing I want to say is answer E only sees one possibility. That's not what a necessary answer does.

[Robert Carroll]

Christmaspuppy,

In fact I would say that an Assumption answer will very often only deal with one possible assumption that has to be made by the argument, so that's not an objection to it. Arguments can have multiple assumptions. An Assumption answer need only address one of these to be correct.

Further, you seem to be in fact arguing yourself into why answer choice (E) is correct. The conclusion is that the perception is an illusion. If, as you're pointing out, native speakers' perceptions are more accurate, then their perceptions might not be illusions...so the conclusion is undermined by that point. We in fact want native speakers' perceptions not to be more accurate, for the reasons you mention - if they're accurate in what they believe, then their beliefs may not be illusory.

Robert Carroll

[Christmaspuppy]

Christmaspuppy,

In fact I would say that an Assumption answer will very often only deal with one possible assumption that has to be made by the argument, so that's not an objection to it. Arguments can have multiple assumptions. An Assumption answer need only address one of these to be correct.

Further, you seem to be in fact arguing yourself into why answer choice (E) is correct. The conclusion is that the perception is an illusion. If, as you're pointing out, native speakers' perceptions are more accurate, then their perceptions might not be illusions...so the conclusion is undermined by that point. We in fact want native speakers' perceptions not to be more accurate, for the reasons you mention - if they're accurate in what they believe, then their beliefs may not be illusory.

Robert Carroll

Sorry I still don't get it. Let me try to explain myself. Imagine there are 5 degrees of how people hearing a language. From 1-5, the higher the degree, more accurate they hear.
Level 2 is how non-native speaker hear it as unintelligible, uninterrupted stream of sound.
Level 3 is how native speaker hear it as separate words.
Now the premise says that it is wrong that native speakers are at level 3 because non-native speakers are at level 2.
We seem to accept there's only one possibility: native speakers must at level 2 or level 1 because they are not at level 3.
But why can't it be thought like this: even those non-native speakers could at level 2, so native speakers must at level 4 or 5? Then answer E is not a necessary answer. Hope I expressed my thought correctly.

[Robert Carroll]

Christmaspuppy,

In your scale, a higher number is more accurate. If native speakers are more accurate, their perceptions are going to be closer to being right. So the argument certainly does not want native speakers to be at a 4 or 5 in their accuracy - their perceptions are being claimed by the argument to be illusory, not accurate. The situation where native speakers' accuracy is very high is fatal for the argument - if their perceptions are accurate, the argument that they are experiencing an illusion is destroyed.

Robert Carroll

[ivan.l99]

It more seemed like E what was what they were arguing instead of something the argument depended on

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

ivan, let's break down the argument step by step. That often helps me to figure out what I need/what the correct answer choice should do.

Premise: Travelers hear foreign language as an uninterrupted stream of sound
Premise: Native speakers perceive their language as a sequence of separate words.

Conclusion: Native speakers' perception is an illusion (ie wrong).

There's a heck of a space between those premises and the conclusion. We have two different perceptions of the same sound. Why would one be more correct than the other? We need an assumption to come in and say that the travelers are the ones to be believed. Answer choice (E) does that for us. It tells us that the native speakers are not more accurate in their perceptions than the travelers. That's a required assumption for the idea that the native speakers are incorrect in their perception.

Hope that helps!