#25 - Global Reference, Must Be True

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (E).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice.


This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[nusheenaparvizi]

Hi, I initially immediately eliminated E and chose D, thinking that each passage was coming from the difference in conceptual v. linguistic differences. Now that I'm looking back, E looks like the right answer, but I still can't fully push D out as entirely wrong either? Is there something I am missing that makes D entirely incorrect?

[KelseyWoods]

Hi Nusheena!

Passage A does not posit that conceptual differences cause linguistic differences. Check out the first sentence of the second paragraph: "Whorf’s main mistake was to assume that our mother tongue prevents us from being able to think
certain thoughts; new research suggests that in reality its influence consists in what it obliges us to think about." The author is suggesting that linguistic differences may influence what we think about--gendered nouns in German and Spanish seem to make speakers associate different genders with inanimate objects. Answer choice (D) gets the relationship discussed in passage A backwards (plus its more about associations than concepts), and so it is incorrect.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[woods_elle]

Hi! I originally chose D but seeing your explanation I understand why it is incorrect. However, I do not understand why E is the correct answer as it seems a bit vague. I can understand subjective associations, but I'm not exactly sure how passage B focuses on the "possession" of concepts or what that means.

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi there Elle Woods,

The key concept in Passage B is the concept of numeracy or numerical understanding. Passage B is almost entirely concerned with how language impacts people's concepts of number and amount. If you look at Passage B, near line 60 at the end of the passage, it discusses the ways in which numerical language can relate to the concepts of numeracy.

Hope that helps!

[lounalola]

The language in these answer choices kinda threw me off and I ended up picking C. I've read it over but I still don't understand why E is correct?

[Adam Tyson]

Passage A is all about the relationship between the words we use and what they make us think about. Bridges and clocks aren't inherently male or female, but if our language treats one as male and another as female, we subjectively associate those genders with those things. Whorf thought language restricted us in this way, but the author says no, it just influences us in that way.

Passage B, while also about Whorf (a little bit, anyway), it's mainly about whether a society whose language is not precise when it comes to numbers can nevertheless conceive of numeric ideas, like counting and dividing things equally. Do they have a concept of numbers? And what about a society that has that numeric language? Do the words create the concept, or just influence it? Thus, it's about possessing those concepts.

It is confusing, for sure!