Linguist: In English, the past is described as “behind” and the future

Question

Linguist: In English, the past is described as “behind” and the future “ahead,” whereas in Aymara the past is “ahead” and the future “behind.” Research indicates that English speakers sway backward when discussing the past and forward when discussing the future. Conversely, Aymara speakers gesture forward with their hands when discussing the past and backward when discussing the future. These bodily movements, therefore, suggest that the language one speaks affects how one mentally visualizes time.

The linguist's reasoning depends on assuming which of the following?

The linguist's reasoning depends on assuming which of the following?

(A) At least some Aymara speakers sway forward when discussing the past and backward when discussing the future.
(B) Most people mentally visualize time as running either forward or backward.
(C) Not all English and Aymara speakers tend to sway or gesture forward or backward when discussing the present.
(D) How people move when discussing the future correlates to some extent with how they mentally visualize time.
(E) The researchers also examined the movements of at least some speakers of languages other than English and Aymara discussing the past and the future.

CR55541.01
OG2020 NEW QUESTION

GMATNinja · Answer

You're right that swaying/gesturing backward and forward are examples of "movements."

However, the past and future  themselves  aren't the same thing as mentally visualizing time. The past and the future are just points on some sort of timeline.

What's key to the linguist's argument is how we  see  that timeline in our mind's eye -- do you see the past as in front of you, or behind you? The linguist argues that this depends on what language you speak. To reach this conclusion, he/she makes some observations regarding how you move while discussing the past and the future.

So, the linguist assumes that these movements give us some insight into how people actually see the timeline in their mind's eye. (D) is the correct answer.

I hope that helps!

Elite097 · Answer

ThatDudeKnows  it realy is not clear what this argument is doing and where is the gap. honesty the passage looks complete to me as it is. Naturally language will show how ppl mentally visualise time via body movements if certain languages lead to specific body movements.  MartyTargetTestPrep   ChiranjeevSingh   KarishmaB

ThatDudeKnows · Answer

The argument tells us about two examples whereby language seems to influence movement.

And then the conclusion says that body movements suggest language affects how one visualizes time. Where did the "visualize" part come from? The examples only talk about movement, not visualization. And then all of a sudden we have language --> visualization --> movement.

Elite097 · Answer

But they would only be moving with visuaisation. It is an aspect we do not even need to care about tbh. Hw does it matter what they do to move? ALso how are they moving without visualising? In which case would they be moving front or back without visualisation of time ?  ThatDudeKnows

ThatDudeKnows · Answer

Do you VISUALIZE chewing before you chew? Or do you just chew? Yes, it is an action controlled by your brain, but just because an action is controlled by your brain does not mean that you VISUALIZE it.

This question is a VERY common setup by GMAC. They make an argument that p --> q and then they introduce some term r that is similar to or associated with either p or q but isn't the SAME. And then they insert r into the p --> q relationship without making it clear that it belongs there. Just learn to spot that and you'll get more questions right.

Far more important than this specific case is how you choose to evaluate questions that you get wrong. This is a question written by GMAC. Those are the people who write the real test. It doesn't matter whether you have a good case for why they way they do things is wrong, THEY write the real test. So THEY make the rules. You might disagree with the rules, but rather than arguing why your answer is right or why the right answer is wrong, you'll be better off if you evaluate your wrong answers to see if you can figure out how GMAC works and what you can do differently next time.

LakulishSharma · Answer

This is a very interesting discussion. I landed up on choice B on a similar reasoning. There are two clear logical jumps in author's conclusion.

1. She talks specifically about 2 languages only and concludes about "languages" in general.

2. She talks about forward and backward movements only and based upon that she concludes that it is the "languages" (not only Eng and Aymara/logical jump1) that effect how people (all people) visualize time.

Now, out of these 2 logical jumps, Choice B talks about only one aspect (forward and backwards). The whole conclusion is obviously based on the only these two movements that she has observed. My negation of choice B was what if speakers of other languages visualize time as cyclic? They do visualize time but their movements could be very different from either forward or backwards.

Thus choice B addresses/ explains the logical jumps and thus can be an assumption made by the author? Now that I see that choice B is wrong, the only problem that I can point out with it is the usage of the word "most". If it would have been "all" instead of "most", can this assumption hold?

Also Choice D is based only upon the "future" . If someone visualizes time, he/she must visualize the past and present too, isn't it? Does this make choice D incomplete and thus inadequate in explaining the whole assumption made by the author? Another doubt is about the usage of "to some extent". What is the significance of this usage? Do these two aspects of choice D make it lose its merit as the best answer choice?

Would appreciate help of the community. Thanks in advance.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

LakulishSharma

Your point about cyclic time is important to consider, but it's exactly why we can eliminate B! The author is saying that language affects our visualization of time, but they never say that forward and backward are the only ways this could go. The author might be very satisfied to see that people who speak a language that describes time as cyclic tend to circle their hips when thinking about past or future events, or that people who describe the future as up and the past das own look in those directions when thinking about future and past events. They might even be happy to see that some people describe time using colors, and then think in those terms! None of this contradicts their conclusion, which is simply that our language affects how we visualize time. This doesn't rely on any assumption that the two languages in question cover the  only  ways to do that. As for most vs. all, you want to go in the other direction. With assumptions (as with inferences), stronger language makes the answer  less  likely to be correct, not more, because a more extreme choice is less likely to be necessary. If we rewrote B to be about ALL, we'd be saying that if even one person in the entire world didn't see time this way, then the author's argument would fail. No such extreme assumption is needed.

In general, if you find yourself asking whether something CAN be an assumption, you're on the wrong track. The statement is either necessary or it's not. If it's necessary, that means the argument is ruined without it.

As for D, your question gets at a very important concept about assumptions: they are not required to be exhaustive and cover all aspects of the argument. An assumption almost never PROVES the conclusion correct. Rather, it is one of many things that is needed for the argument not to fail. The author clearly thinks that how people behave when discussing the future and the past has been shaped by their language. This requires an assumption that the way people move when discussing the past and the future relates to how they are thinking about time. And for that true, both component parts (about the past and the future) need to be true. Similarly, if I think I will be both the greatest governor of California and the greatest president of the United States, I am relying on the idea that I will be the governor of California. That doesn't prove any of the rest, but it's necessary, because without it, the full conclusion can't be true.

Oppenheimer1945 · Answer

Can you please tell which out of these 4 can be an assumption?

A. All people mentally visualize time as running either forward or backward
B. All English and Aymara speakers mentally visualize time as running either forward or backward
C. All English and Aymara speakers tend to sway or gesture forward or backward when discussing the future or past
D. How people move when discussing the past correlates to some extent with how they mentally visualize time.

KarishmaB   GMATNinja   ExpertsGlobal   Bunuel

KarishmaB · Answer

The argument already tells us:
Research indicates that English speakers sway backward when discussing the past and forward when discussing the future. 
Conversely, Aymara speakers gesture forward with their hands when discussing the past and backward when discussing the future.

So we know that these are the general traits of English and Aymara. Even if every person of the population does not depict these traits (what if someone doesn't sway at all while talking about time or even depict opposite traits), it is given that this is the norm. We do not need everyone to depict the trait. 
Hence, first three statements you have suggested are not assumptions. 
The fourth one is the actual assumption which is also the answer her. I have put the main point of this assumption question in colour in my comment on page 1.

Elite097 · Answer

DmitryFarber  can you please elaborate what you mean here??
" This doesn't rely on any assumption that the two languages in question cover the only ways to do that"

Also, they would only be moving with visuaisation. Why is this an assumption? How would they be moving (as per the meanings they interpret in their language) without visualising? In which case would they be moving front or back without visualisation of time?

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Elite097

What I was getting at is that the author is using two cases (English and Aymara) to support the idea that the language one speaks affects how one visualizes time. It's certainly possible that speakers of other languages move differently and visualize time differently. However, this wouldn't hurt the argument at all, so there's no assumption being made about how many different ways people can move when speaking about time. The author isn't saying 
"Clearly, everyone moves either backward or forward when talking about the past or the future." They are just using these examples to talk about visualization. If speakers of some other language see the future as up and the past as down, and if they look in those directions when speaking, that doesn't harm the argument.

As for your second question, I think you're adding things that we don't really know. That's exactly what an assumption is! First, we don't know that you have to visualize in order to move, especially when we are talking about small motions people make when speaking. If I lean back or forward when I am talking to you, I may not even realize I am doing that, let alone build a visual model of that action in my head. Second, the argument and answer choice D are not talking about how we visualize our actions; they are talking about how we visualize  time.  We have no idea if our motions when speaking are connected to our mental visualization of time in particular. That's the assumption the author is making. Maybe some other cause is influencing those forward and backward motions the author is reporting on.

Radyah · Answer

Can someone please explain why B is wrong and D is right in terms of the methodology used to approach this question?

I was very confused between B and D as both felt like assumptions made by the author but chose B and got it wrong.

@GMATNinja can you help?

GMATNinja · Answer

This silly example might help: imagine that most people visualize time as moving in a circle, and when those people talk about time, they move their heads in a circle. That would be consistent with the linguist's argument, even though it goes against choice (B).

Or maybe most people don't mentally visualize time as "running" at all, and when they talk about time, they don't move at all! Again, this goes against (B) but fits the argument.

(B) doesn't hurt the argument, but, unlike (D), it's not a necessary assumption.

Engineer1 · Answer

KarishmaB ,  MartyMurray   GMATNinja  the only reason I was not sure about D is that it only talks about discussing future and does not cover past (basically half the argument is considered?). Any thoughts on what to do in this case? Negation as well would then cover future only. Any feedback helps. Thank you

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Engineer1

An important thing to understand about GMAT assumptions is that they need only be NECESSARY, not sufficient. In other words, we are looking for something that needs to be true for the argument to work, but not typically something that fixes the entire argument or covers all its major flaws. That's why the negation test works. If you take AWAY an assumption, the argument should fail. This can happen even when only a small part of the gap in the argument is addressed by the assumption.

For instance, consider this argument: "The patient has an infection that is treatable with antibiotics. Therefore we should prescribe a 3-month course of these new experimental antibiotics." You're probably wondering why 3 months, and why THESE antibiotics. Valid objections. But the argument also relies on the assumption "The infection should be treated." That hardly covers all the issues, but it's necessary. If the infection should NOT be treated, the whole argument falls apart. Similarly, if how we think about the future has nothing to do with mental visualization, then the author's argument doesn't make sense.

KarishmaB · Answer

One assumption: (D) How people move when discussing the future correlates to some extent with how they mentally visualize time.
Another assumption: How people move when discussing the past correlates to some extent with how they mentally visualize time.
There could be many others.

ManifestDreamMBA · Answer

Can someone please explain why E is not considered on grounds that the conclusion is over-generalisation using only 2 cases? How did we identify the scope of the conclusion is only English and Aymara speakers and not everyone?

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

I think the explanation you've quoted here actually covers it very well: E might feel helpful, but it isn't strictly necessary. If there is a difference between speakers of two languages, then it may be true that the language they speak causes that difference. We don't necessarily need to survey other languages to come to that conclusion, and there's no clear number of languages we must survey. Also, if we did need to know about additional languages, the work wouldn't have to have been done by these same researchers on this same topic. There could be other studies by other researchers that support the same point. But again, we don't need additional support for this to be true. Of course, that doesn't mean that the conclusion is provably correct. It just means that it CAN be correct whether or not E is true. However, if D is false, then the conclusion really can't be correct, at least not on the basis of the given premises.

adconsectetur · Answer

Language. Movement. Mentally visualise time Evidence : language <--> Movement Conclusion: Language <--> Mentally visualise time Assumption: Movement <--> Mentally visualise time.

Linguist: In English, the past is described as “behind” and the future

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Linguist: In English, the past is described as “behind” and the future

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