PrepTest 157, Section 1, Question 10
Grammarians of the prescriptive school take it as(452 more words not shown)
The passage indicates that which(9 more words not shown)
- AThe constant change(11 more words not shown)
- BThe study of(6 more words not shown)
- CA word's origins(5 more words not shown)
- DLaws do not(5 more words not shown)
- EMorality is not(8 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Keep the speaker straight. Prescriptivists encourage correct usage, and the data example shows one basis they use for judging correctness: a word's origin. We need a view attributed to that group, not a conclusion we might draw about language on our own.
Working the answers
- A
They acknowledge constant change but worry about disorder. Acknowledging change isn't endorsing it as healthy. Descriptivists accept established changes more readily, but even that doesn't make A the prescriptivists' stated view.
- B
We aren't told that prescriptivists think language cannot be studied scientifically. The objections to treating change like a physical law don't amount to rejecting scientific study altogether.
- CCorrect
They regard “data” as plural because it is the plural of the Latin “datum,” and they think English usage should respect that origin. That example directly supports the view that origins should inform present usage.
- D
The author says linguistic laws are not like the laws of physics. Neither that distinction nor the prescriptivists' attempt to influence usage establishes that no laws govern language change.
- E
The moral objection is answered with a claim about inclusion and free exchange. Prescriptivists aren't described as insisting that morality has no place in the discussion.
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