PrepTest 157 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 7

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Grammarians of the prescriptive school take it as part of their task to distinguish correct from incorrect usage in language and thereby to encourage the former. ████ ███████ ████ ██ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ██████████ █ ██████████ ████████ ████████ ████ ███████ ████ █████████ ███

Prescriptivists · Distinguish correct from incorrect language use

Prescriptivists want to encourage correct use.

Descriptivists · Describe actual usage

Descriptivists just want to describe how language is used. They think prescriptivists will fail to stop “incorrect” use.

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Example · Supporting Descriptivists

“Data” is used as a singular noun rather than plural. That's one example of usage judged by prescriptivists to be incorrect, but over time has come to be accepted.

Descriptivists' Objection 1 · Scientific objection (language transformation inevitable)

Descriptivists object that language change is governed by laws similar to scientific laws. Prescriptivists can’t change them.

Descriptivists' Objection 2 · Egalitarian objection (imposing elite standards on language)

Descriptivists object that prescriptivists are immorally trying to impose their own language practices, which are those of the educated and rich elite.

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Prescriptivists' Counter to 1 · Language laws not like science

Prescriptivists counter that laws governing language aren’t like scientific laws. We can influence language usage.

Prescriptivists' Counter to 2 · Inclusive aims of prescriptivists

Prescriptivists say that having a “correct” usage is important for free exchange of ideas. The goal of prescriptivists is to include, not exclude.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

The author's defense of the ██████████████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ █████ ██ ████ ████████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████ █████

Question Type

WSE (RC)

Let’s understand the descriptivists’ criticism first (from P2): “the scientific objection: the transformation of language is governed by laws not unlike the laws of nature, and those trying to hold back linguistic change might as well attempt to defy the law of gravity.”

The author’s response to that criticism is in P3. The author starts by saying that we actually have changed language use before. That suggests we can influence the laws of language transformation. The descriptivists might respond, however, by saying those changes in language may have been simply following the laws of transformation – in other words, we didn’t actually cause any change; the changes would have happened no matter what.

Now we get to what we’re trying to strengthen. The author responds by saying that language transformation laws are not like science. We can change how people use language, because we can persuade people to make those changes. Notice that the author’s response is a causal claim – persuasion can cause people to change their language use. To strengthen the argument, we should be open to all the traditional ways of strengthening a causal claim. (Precluding an alternative hypothesis, providing a causal mechanism, and providing corroborating evidence.)

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(A) might slightly favor the descriptivists’ view. If communities left on their own develop very similar rules compared to other communities, that might constitute evidence that there are “natural” rules of language, which makes those rules more like scientific laws.

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(B) provides corroborating evidence for the causal relationship. If it were true that people could be persuaded to use language in a particular way, we would expect the degree to which someone follows language rules to be correlated with how much they were persuaded to use those rules.

(B) helps to confirm that expectation. On average, stronger emphasis on grammar instruction in primary schools is more associated with sticking to the language rules taught in those schools. And, weaker emphasis on grammar instruction in primary schools is less associated with sticking to the language rules taught in those schools. That provides at least some evidence of a causal connection between degree of persuasion (as measured by the emphasis on grammar instruction) and following language rules.

59%

A cross-cultural study █████ ████ ███████ ████ █████████ ██████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████ ████ ███████ █████████ ███████ ███████████ █ ███████ █████ ██ █████████ ██ ████████ ████

(C) might slightly favor the descriptivists’ view. If both formal education systems and minimal education systems show a similar range of variation in how language is used, that suggests that language instruction (persuasion) might not have an impact on language use. There are, of course, some assumptions underlying this interpretation of (C). For example, we would have to assume that “extensive formal education systems” and “minimal education systems” indicate different levels of language instruction. That seems like a reasonable assumption. Even if it’s not, that would mean (C) simply wouldn’t have an affect on the author’s position.

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(D) could be read to weaken the author’s position. If persuasion and training could influence language use, we’d expect that the students who get more prior instruction should agree on grammar rules than students who didn’t get much instruction. But (D) tells us the opposite is true.

16%

A report demonstrated ████ ██████ ███████ ███████████ ██████████ █████████ ████ █████ ███████ ███████ █████ ███████████ ███████ ████████████

(E) gives us evidence that might undermine the author’s defense. If certain communities have “large differences” between them, but have language practices that are “quite uniform,” that suggests the laws of language usage might be more natural and similar to scientific laws. After all, we might expect very different communities to have different language usage, since each community’s use of language would likely be influenced by different sources of persuasion.

PrepTest 157 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 7

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