PT116.S1.P2.Q7 > Analytics

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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.

Explanation · Most instances of code-switching can be explained by situational or rhetorical factors

Some exceptional cases of code-switching cannot be explained.

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Explanation · Domains or social context determine whether code-switching occurs

Main factors are setting, participants, and topic which combine into five domains: family; friendship; religion; education; and employment.

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.

Results · 2 congruent factors

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.

Results · 2 incongruent factors

Prompted with participants: priest and parishioner and setting: beach, students disagreed on third factor and mix of language.

Exceptions · Unexplained code-switching

Sometimes the domain predictions about code-switching are wrong.

Example · One family at home

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 (RC)

Single position

In the final sentence of ███ ████████ ███ ██████ ████████ ███ ██████ ████████ ███████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ █████ ██

Question Type

Purpose in context (of word, phrase, or idea)

Structure

At the beginning of the last paragraph, the author asserts that sometimes, language switches occur “to achieve certain rhetorical effects.” The last sentence is offered to show that the family discussed in the last paragraph switched languages for rhetorical effect (to express intimacy or humor more emphatically).

report evidence supporting ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██████████████ ███ █ ██████████ █████

This best captures the purpose as explained below the question stem.

75%

show that reasons ███ ██████████████ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████

The last paragraph doesn’t involve different communities and different reasons for code-switching in these different communities. Since (B) doesn’t happen in the last paragraph, it’s not the purpose of the last sentence.

supply evidence that █████ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ████████████ ███████████ █████ ███ ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████████████

The last sentence doesn’t present evidence that conflicts with researchers’ conclusion about why the family code-switched. It supports the conclusion that the family code-switched for rhetorical effect.

refute the argument ████ ███████████ ███████ ███████ ████ ██████████████

The author never suggests that it’s incorrect to believe most code-switching is explained by situational factors. So (D) can’t be the purpose of the last sentence.

10%

explain how it █████ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████ █████ ███ ██ ███████

The last sentence involves the family members’ explanation for why they code-switched. This doesn’t help explain why the family members didn’t realize that they code-switched until it was pointed out to them.

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