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805+ (Hard)|   Non-Math Related|         
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Dereno
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Linguist: Plosives and fricatives are two classes of consonants. 26 Jan 2026, 04:05
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parkhydel
Linguist: Plosives and fricatives are two classes of consonants. A "voicing contrast" is a distinction between two consonants that are identical except that one is voiced and the other is unvoiced. In language family X, languages with voicing contrasts in their fricatives always have voicing contrasts in their plosives. This means that in that family, any given language has a voicing contrast in its fricatives __________ it has a voicing contrast in its plosives. In other words, a given language in that family lacks any voicing contrasts in its plosives __________ it lacks any such contrasts in its fricatives.

Select for First blank the word or phrase that most logically completes the statement with the first blank. And select for Second blank the word or phrase that most logically completes the statement with the second blank. Make only two selections, one in each column.­

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Ignoring the initial distractions, and moving to the core region.

“In language family X, languages with voicing contrasts in their fricatives always have voicing contrasts in their plosives”.

Let’s take the fricatives and plosives as f and p respectively.

IF vc(f) is yes, then vc(p) is a yes.

what, vc(f) is NOT YES - No, then the outcome of vc(p) is 2 ways : can be yes. OR can be no.

Converting the previous inference to a table.

If vc(f) ✅ ———> then vc(p) is ✅.

vc(f) ❌ —————> vc(p) is ✅ OR

vc(f) ❌—————> vc(p) is ❌.

Now to the question.

any given language has a voicing contrast in its fricatives __________ it has a voicing contrast in its plosives.

vc(f) is ✅ when vc(p) is also ✅. So, ONLY IF

Now, to the next blank space,

In other words, a given language in that family lacks any voicing contrasts in its plosives __________ it lacks any such contrasts in its fricatives.

vc(p) ❌ occurs ONLY IF vc(f) ❌.
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Linguist: Plosives and fricatives are two classes of consonants. 25 Feb 2026, 00:51
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Hi Chetan, I had a doubt regarding this. For the last logical statement where we have if A then B = Only if 'Not A' then 'Not B', if we were to take A to be it rains and B to be the ground is wet, then how is if it rains the ground is wet = only if it doesn't rain then the ground is not wet? Because the ground can be wet by some other factor right?

But I understand that by the logical operators if A then B = If not B then not A = Only if not A then not B the flow works.
chetan2u
It is all about rearranging the statement - languages with voicing contrasts in their fricatives always have voicing contrasts in their plosives.

This means voicing contrast in fricatives means voicing contrasts in their plosives. It would happen when voicing contrasts in their fricatives(A) is a part of voicing contrasts in their plosives.(B) .

In terms of If then sentence: it means If A then B.

(1) The other way to write this is A only if B, and this is exactly what blank 1 does.
any given language has a voicing contrast in its fricatives(A) __________ it has a voicing contrast in its plosive(B)
(2) Another way to write If A then B is 'If not B, then not A'. This further becomes not B only if not A.
This is exactly the way blank 2 is written
In other words, a given language in that family lacks any voicing contrasts in its plosives(not B) __________ it lacks any such contrasts in its fricatives(not A).

Hoehenheim, Hope it helps
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Linguist: Plosives and fricatives are two classes of consonants. 22 Aug 2026, 01:36
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This is a difficult problem and I understand why I got it wrong. The question and the passage can be changed to the analogy, "In the country of Malaynesia, a zoo with wild animals has a tiger, then it always has a lion."

Family of language X ------> Country of Malaynesia
Voicing contrast -----> Wild animals
Fricatives -------> Tiger
Plosives -----------> Lion

Essentially, it changes to the fact that if a zoo with wild animals is there, then either tiger and lion will be there together or a scene will happen when there is no tiger and no lion. Tiger only and lion absent is not possible. Tiger absent and lion only is not possible.

So, the question becomes "This means that in that country of Malaynesia, any given zoo with wild animals has a tiger __________ it has a lion. In other words, a given zoo in that country lacks lion __________ it lacks any such tiger in its wild animals."

Now, we can clearly see why the answer is only if, only if.
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Linguist: Plosives and fricatives are two classes of consonants. 31 Aug 2026, 04:43
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In language family X, languages with voicing contrasts in their fricatives(F) always have voicing contrasts in their plosives(P). This means that in that family, any given language has a voicing contrast in its fricatives (F) __________ it has a voicing contrast in its plosives (P).


Evaluating each option for statement 1:

and: and means F, P are always simultaneously present. We know that for F to be present P has to be present. But we cannot say that if B is present A will be present or not. so eliminated.

if: F present if P present or if P present then F present. we know that for F to exist, P has to be there. but if P is present, F can or cannot be there. there is no evidence that suggests that P cannot exist without F.

only if: F present only if P present. Our statement says that if F exists then P has to exist. so if P does not exist then F cannot exist. Yeah, that goes with F only present in the presence of P or F only if P.

or: no, we know if F exists then P has to exist. so as F cannot be without P so or is out.

unless: this is saying F will be present unless P is present. that means F will exist as long as P does not exist. well that's entirely opposite of what we have established. so out.

in these conditional statement questions check out negation of the statement too, to double check that you are going in the right direction like we did with the green part in only if option.
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