In many bilingual communities of Puerto Rican Americans living in the mainland United States, people use both English and Spanish in a single conversation, alternating between them smoothly and frequently even within the same sentence. ████ █████████████████ ███████████████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████████████ ███
Phenomenon ·Code-switching
Puerto Rican Americans use both English and Spanish in a single conversation, smoothly alternating between them.
Experimental Setup ·To test effects of domains on code-switching
Researchers create hypothetical situations with 2 congruent factors or 2 incongruent factors. Then, researchers ask students to determine the third factor and which mixture of language they would use.
Prompted with participants: parent and child and topic: how to be a good son or daughter. Students chose setting as home and language was Spanish only.
Family thought they spoke only English but they code-switched to Spanish (even when situational factors didn't change) to express certain attitudes like intimacy or humor more emphatically.
Passage Style
Phenomenon-hypothesis
Single position
9.
The primary function of the █████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██
Question Type
Purpose of paragraph
Structure
P3 presents evidence to support the claim that code-switching is sometimes explained by rhetorical factors. Remember, the main point is that most code-switching by Puerto Rican Americans is explained by situational and rhetorical factors. P2 goes into situational factors. P3 goes into rhetorical factors.
a
consider a general ███████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████████████ ████ ██ █████████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████
P3 doesn’t present a “general” explanation for the phenomenon of code-switching that’s different from that discussed in the previous paragraphs. In P1, the author asserts that most code-switching by Puerto Rican Americans is explained by situational and rhetorical factors. This is the general explanation discussed in previous paragraphs. P3 presents rhetorical factors, which are one part of the general explanation. They’re not part of a different general explanation.
There’s no conflict between the situational factor explanation and the rhetorical factor explanation. Both are compatible with each other, because some cases can be explained by situational factors, and other cases can be explained by rhetorical factors.
c
show that there ███ █████████ ██ ██████████████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████
This best captures the purpose of P3. The author wants to show that situational factors don’t explain all instances of code-switching. Some code-switching is due to rhetorical factors.
d
report some of ███ ████████ ██ ██████████████ ████████ █████ █ ██████ ██ ██████ █████ █████████ ██ ███████ █████████
This isn’t the author’s purpose, because it’s divorced from the context of the other paragraphs. In P1, the author asserts that most code-switching by Puerto Rican Americans is explained by situational and rhetorical factors. P3 presents support for that claim in P1. So the author’s purpose isn’t merely to report about patterns observed; it’s to show that code-switching can occur for rhetorical reasons.
e
show that some █████████ ██ ██████████████ ███ ███████████
Although the author does acknowledge that the code-switching described in the last paragraph was unconscious, the author’s purpose isn’t to show the unconscious nature of that code-switching. It’s to show that the code-switching can occur for rhetorical effect. This helps support the author’s claim at the end of P1.
Difficulty
88% of people who answer get this correct
This is a low-difficulty question.
It is significantly easier than other questions in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%120
134
75%149
Analysis
Purpose of paragraph
Structure
Phenomenon-hypothesis
Science
Single position
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
7%
161
b
1%
152
c
88%
164
d
1%
155
e
4%
153
Question history
You don't have any history with this question.. yet!
You've discovered a premium feature!
Subscribe to unlock everything that 7Sage has to offer.
Hold on there, stranger! You need a free account for that.
We love that you want to get going. Just create a free account below—it only takes a minute—and then you can continue!
Hold on there, stranger! You need a free account for that.
We love that you came here to read all the amazing posts from our 300,000+ members. They all have accounts too! Just create a free account below—it only takes a minute—and then you’re free to discuss anything!
Hold on there, stranger! You need a free account for that.
We love that you want to give us feedback! Just create a free account below—it only takes a minute—and then you’re free to vote on this!
Subscribers can learn all the LSAT secrets.
Happens all the time: now that you've had a taste of the lessons, you just can't stop -- and you don't have to! Click the button.