The proliferation of colloquialisms is degrading the English language.

Question

The proliferation of colloquialisms is degrading the English language. A phrase such as she was like, "no way!" you know?—a meaningless collection of English words just a few decades ago—is commonly understood by most today to mean she was doubtful. No language can admit imprecise word usage on a large scale without a corresponding decrease in quality.

The argument relies on which of the following assumptions?

(A) Colloquialisms always evolve out of a meaningless collection of words.

(B) The colloquialisms appearing in the English language introduce imprecision into the language on what would be considered a large scale.

(C) The Russian, French, and German languages cannot admit imprecise word usage on a large scale without an inevitable decrease in the quality of those languages.

(D) The English language would not be degraded if there did not exist an alternative informal way to express the sentiment "she was doubtful."

(E) The widespread use of colloquialisms represents the most serious form of language degradation.

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OneLazyBum · Answer

(D) 
Is is this the correct answer?

sanjitscorps18 · Answer

Below is my explanation

(A) Colloquialisms always evolve out of a meaningless collection of words.
--> The argument is not whether Colloquialisms "always" evolves out of a "meaningless collection of words."
"Always" would be too strong and it is also not referred in the argument as such

(B) The colloquialisms appearing in the English language introduce imprecision into the language on what would be considered a large scale. 
--> This looks ok. The author writes in the premise "The  proliferation of colloquialisms  is degrading the English language.". However, while concluding he states, "No language can admit  imprecise word usage   on a large scale ". It takes a jump from "proliferation of colloquialisms" to "admit imprecise word usage", thereby equating both the terms, and for that this assumption is necessary

(C) The Russian, French, and German languages cannot admit imprecise word usage on a large scale without an inevitable decrease in the quality of those languages.
--> The author already includes this in the conclusion by saying "No language".

(D) The English language would not be degraded if there did not exist an alternative informal way to express the sentiment "she was doubtful."
--> This is a wrong assumption. The author is not against alternate expressions but rather criticizes colloquialisms' impact on the language

(E) The widespread use of colloquialisms represents the most serious form of language degradation.
--> "most serious form" is not referenced by the author. He merely states that it degrades but does it degrade the most is not within the scope of the argument.

Option B

Bunuel · Answer

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

How's that for eloquence? The strange part is that most of us really have no problem understanding the meaning of this phrase. Which is, in fact, the author's beef in the stimulus. He gets right to the point: the conclusion that the increase in colloquialisms degrades the English language. For evidence, the author then (1) gives us an example of a colloquialism, the illustrious phrase in the title above, and (2) states that imprecise word usage on a large scale basically decreases the quality of the language, hence, the tie in with the conclusion in the first sentence. The assumption resides in the gaps between these pieces of information; we were never told that these colloquialisms were rampant or imprecise. Indeed, the author states that imprecise words admitted on a large scale decrease a language's quality, without showing that colloquialisms really fall into either category. That omission constitutes the shift in scope. For the author's conclusion to be valid based on this evidence, he must assume that the evidence is relevant to the conclusion, and that colloquialisms are both imprecise and prevalent in English. The right answer choice, (B), picks up on both. Without this, the evidence simply doesn't lead all the way to the conclusion.

(A) focuses on the source of colloquialisms, which the author addresses but which plays a central role in neither the evidence nor the conclusion. This could or could not be true without impacting the conclusion.

(C) basically restates the evidence. If "no language" can permit such laxity, then these three languages would logically follow along, but since the stimulus already tells us this much, (C) is not a necessary assumption here.

An 800 test taker recognizes the difference between a stated piece of evidence and an unstated—yet required—part of an argument (i.e., its assumption).

(D), if anything, presents us with a flawed inference, which would only be accurate if the author assumed that the stated colloquialism were the only colloquialism in English, and that only colloquialisms degrade the English language. He assumes neither, so if this were an Inference question, (D) would be wrong on these counts. As far as being assumed—that is, being something that's required by the argument—(D) is even further off base.

(E) is too extreme. The author identifies one cause (proliferating colloquialisms) which leads to one effect (like, um, degraded English). To make this argument, he does not need to assume that this cause is more or less serious than any other. Even if colloquialisms were a minor part of this problem, the author's conclusion could still be valid.

Pratyaksh1907 · Answer

The proliferation of colloquialisms is degrading the English language. -  This is the main conclusion by the author

A phrase such as she was like, "no way!" you know?—a meaningless collection of English words just a few decades ago—is commonly understood by most today to mean she was doubtful. -  An example in line with the Main conclusion

No language can admit imprecise word usage on a large scale without a corresponding decrease in quality.  - Claim made by the author to support the Main Conclusion

Now that the structure is clear, just focus on the GAP. The argument jumps from the Premise to the Claim and introduces the Conclusion with an unfamiliar word Colloquialism. Now, all we need is to bridge the GAP between imprecise word in large scale degrading language quality and Colloquialism degrading English language.

(A) Colloquialisms always evolve out of a meaningless collection of words.
    This is too extreme. Even if we negate this choice i.e. "C NOT always evolve out of a meaningless collection of words.", meaning, sometimes it evolves from a meaningless collection, right? Therefore, the negation won't actually break the conclusion.
 
 (B) The colloquialisms appearing in the English language introduce imprecision into the language on what would be considered a large scale. 
  This what we need. If it would NOT have been considered large scale, then there is no need to conclude that Collo. is degrading the English language.   
 
 (C) The Russian, French, and German languages cannot admit imprecise word usage on a large scale without an inevitable decrease in the quality of those languages.
   Other languages are none of our concern.
 
 (D) The English language would not be degraded if there did not exist an alternative informal way to express the sentiment "she was doubtful."
   Can you see that this choice completely focuses on a point which was presented as a mere example in the argument as Main Point for the assumption.  . In other words, it is not a Must Be True scenario.
 
 (E) The widespread use of colloquialisms represents the most serious form of language degradation.
   The seriousness of the cause is none of our concern. The fact that it is still a cause makes this option irrelevant.

Hope it helps,
Thanks   :)

The proliferation of colloquialisms is degrading the English language.

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The proliferation of colloquialisms is degrading the English language.

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