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Colloquialisms

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by komal » Thu Feb 18, 2010 7:32 pm
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.

OA B
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by money9111 » Thu Feb 18, 2010 8:06 pm
i would have chosen A for this one but it said ALWAYS and i don't like seeing those words in CR questions... it raises a flag.. i chose B
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by paddle_sweep » Thu Apr 29, 2010 10:10 pm
What's the issue with 'E'? Could somebody advice please? I narrowed it down to 'B' and 'E' and then picked 'E'?
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by shalzz9 » Fri Apr 30, 2010 5:54 am
IMO B

The conclusion is

No language can admit imprecise word usage on a large scale without a corresponding decrease in quality.


When B is negated it weakens the conclusion

The colloquialisms appearing in the English language introduce imprecision into the language on what would not be considered a large scale.


IMO E does not weaken the conclusion when negated
(E) The widespread use of colloquialisms does not represents the most serious form of language degradation.
This may mean that apart from colloquialism there may be other ways to degrade language.
But the conclusion here talks about word usage on a large scale, i.e to many imprecise words used will decrease the quality of the language.
E could mean that one or two colloquial sentences are famous but they may or may not decrease the quality of the language. As at least the rest of the language is spoken in the right way.
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