Doubt Clarification

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Doubt Clarification

by akash singhal » Mon Oct 19, 2015 10:26 pm
All languages known to have exactly six basic color terms describe the same six colors -
black, white, red, green, blue and yellow - corresponding to the primary neural responses
revealed in studies of human color perception. In addition, all languages known to have
only three basic color terms distinguish among "black," "white," and "red." This evidence
shows that the way in which the mind recognizes differences among colored objects is not
influenced by culture.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?

A. While languages differ in their number of basic color terms, no language has been
conclusively determined to have more than eleven such terms.
B. Every language contains mechanisms by which speakers who perceive subtle differences in
hue can describe those differences.
C. Among cultures employing only three color terms, the word "red" typically encompasses
not only objects that would be called red in English but also those that would be called
yellow.
D. Several languages, such as Vietnamese and Pashto, use a single term to mean both blue
and green, but speakers of such languages commonly refer to tree leaves or the sky to
resolve ambiguous utterances.
E. In a study of native speakers of Tarahumara, a language that does not distinguish between
blue and green, respondents were less able to identify distinctions among blue and green
chips than native speakers of Spanish, which does distinguish between blue and green.

OA E

Why not C?
also please what A means although its wrong.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by mindful » Tue Oct 20, 2015 8:22 am
Hmm. Interesting question.

A: says while the number of colours identified in each language might be different, any language has identified only 11 colors tops, no more than eleven.
Is this wrong? I guess so: because it seems to subtly "support" the fact that people identify similar/same colors, regardless of culture, as the maximum number of colors identified in any language are eleven. It is not as though one language identifies 8 colors, and another language, 43 colours.

B: Okay. Kind of irrelevant. Seems to subtly support the claim of commonality again.

C: Trick answer. Provides a bit of info. Seems relevant...but not really. My guess is that is wrong because a) it focuses only on three languages, and b) a commonality amongst those three. It is kind of not relevant to the question asked.

D. Not unlike C, this gives some info...but on the whole doesn't address the overarching question.

E. Finally, we have something like a "difference" rather than a commonality between two different languages/cultures. Which means culture does affect our ability to identify colors. This weakens the claim made in the question.

Experts can clarify further...