PrepTest 157, Section 1, Question 11
Grammarians of the prescriptive school take it as(452 more words not shown)
The passage provides the most(8 more words not shown)
- AThe rate at(14 more words not shown)
- BDescriptivists endorse some(19 more words not shown)
- CDescriptivists do not(9 more words not shown)
- DPrescriptivists and descriptivists(9 more words not shown)
- EPrescriptivists generally do(19 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Wanting to regulate change is different from denying that change occurs. Prescriptivists think they are preventing a “constantly changing language” from falling into disorder. Descriptivists point to usages that changed despite objections. The two schools disagree about how to respond to change, while both recognizing it.
Working the answers
- A
No rate of change is measured, and no acceleration is linked to descriptivism's popularity. Examples of change don't establish that it is getting faster.
- B
The data example works against this claimed condition. Descriptivists accept the newer usage despite the word's Latin origin; we are not told they endorse prescription only when it respects etymology.
- C
Whether descriptivists acknowledge unavoidable ambiguity is not discussed. Their willingness to describe changing usage doesn't establish either position on that separate issue.
- DCorrect
The opening explicitly attributes recognition of constant change to prescriptivists, and the examples explain descriptivists' recognition of it. One group tries to guide the process; the other objects to holding it back.
- E
We aren't given this test for when prescriptivists count their efforts as successful. In particular, nothing says they must await confirmation from descriptivists' investigations. That adds a procedure and dependence between the schools that the author never describes.
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