Sentence Correction

prachich1987 wrote:Pragmatists believe that adding words to the dictionary because of popular usage is a normal part of the evolution of a language; but purists argue that this practice leads to a "dumbing down" of the language, which they liken to making particular crimes legal just because people are committing those crimes.

A. which they liken to making particular crimes legal just because people are committing those crimes
B. which they liken to, just because people are committing particular crimes, making those crimes legal
C. which they liken to particular crimes being made legal just because people are committing those crimes
D. likening it to, just because people are committing particular crimes, making those crimes legal
E. likening it to making particular crimes legal just because people are committing those crimes

bubbliiiiiiii wrote:

prachich1987 wrote:Pragmatists believe that adding words to the dictionary because of popular usage is a normal part of the evolution of a language; but purists argue that this practice leads to a "dumbing down" of the language, which they liken to making particular crimes legal just because people are committing those crimes.

A. which they liken to making particular crimes legal just because people are committing those crimes
B. which they liken to, just because people are committing particular crimes, making those crimes legal
C. which they liken to particular crimes being made legal just because people are committing those crimes
D. likening it to, just because people are committing particular crimes, making those crimes legal
E. likening it to making particular crimes legal just because people are committing those crimes

Here we see a 3-2 split starting with which and likening.

Options A,B and C are out since they start with 'which', which is used to describe something. Since in this case we are not describing language but comparing it with some other thing, we would avoid the usage of word which.

Between D and E,
I would prefer D over E because,
1. it has proper punctuation after 'likening it to'
2. I believe 'adding words to the dictionary .... evolution of a language' is parallel to 'just because people are committing particular crimes, making those crimes legal'.

Thus D.

OA Please!

Regards,

Pranay

e-GMAT wrote:Pragmatists believe that adding words to the dictionary because of popular usage is a normal part of the evolution of a language; but purists argue that this practice leads to a "dumbing down" of the language, which they liken to making particular crimes legal just because people are committing those crimes.

Lets first understand what the author is trying to communicate in this sentence:
This sentence shows a contrast between what pragmatists think about adding words to the dictionary and what purists think about this practice. The pragmatists think that this practice is normal part of evolution of a language. The purists think that this practice leads to "dumbing down" of the language. They further compare such addition of popularly used words to legalizing the crimes that are committed by the people.
Note that understanding the meaning of this sentence is the key to answering this question correctly.

Now we will do error analysis of original choice.
@Bubbliiiiiiii correctly pointed out that "which modifier" is incorrect in the context of this sentence. This is because "which" modifies the closest noun - language and in this sentence, this modification does not make sense since the language is not being compared to making crimes legal...In fact as discussed in the meaning analysis, the entire practice of adding words that are popularly used is compared to the practice of making those crimes legal that are often committed by people. Thus, this choice has modifier error.

Now we perform process of elimination.
Choices B and C have similar error as Choice A - Incorrect
Choice D: The order of certain parts of the sentence is awkward and hence this choice does not communicate the intended meaning. The placement of commas and the order of placement makes "just because people are committing particular crimes" an additional information which is not required to communicate the intended meaning. However, from the intended meaning we know that this piece of information is required to communicate the meaning.
Choice E: Correct.