LSAT 154 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q18

LR Question 18 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: In many families adults speak to babies in simplified…

QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption

CONCLUSION: Using simple language with babies doesn’t help them learn a language.

REASONING: In some families no one speaks to babies in simple language. Yet these babies learn the grammar structure of the language.

ANALYSIS: In necessary assumption questions you want to look for a shift in terms between the conclusion and reasoning. Here, the author makes a conclusion about “learning a language”, but has reasoning about “learning the grammar structure of a language”.

Are those the same thing? The argument has to assume that they are.

___________

1. This doesn’t matter, because we don’t know how this answer relates to language learning. Babies pay attention to a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean they learn those things. It’s possible to pay attention to phrases for reasons other than language learning.
   Negation: Babies do pay extra attention to simple phrases, but this is unrelated to language learning. They merely find the phrases engaging.
2. This goes too far. The author was merely arguing that simple phrases don’t help language learning. We don’t need to assume that simple phrases actively hurt language learning.
   Negation: Simple phrases don’t hurt language learning: they’re merely neutral and don’t help.
3. CORRECT. If this is not true, then we can’t say the babies in families without simple phrases have mastered the language.
   Negation: Children who have mastered the grammatical structure of a language haven’t necessarily learned the language.
4. It doesn’t matter what linguists believe. Those linguists could be wrong. The LSAT makes a strict separation between belief and fact.
5. This is irrelevant. The author talks about simple phrases. This isn’t the same as vocabulary. You can make a simple phrase like “Nice Rhododendron. See the Rhododendron?”. Simple phrase, advanced vocabulary. We have nothing in the stimulus to suggest that those who uses simple phrases use insufficient vocabulary.
    
   In any case, the author’s focus was on grammar. T his weakens the argument by suggesting that grammar alone isn’t enough. The right answer should strengthen the argument.

Recap: The question begins with “In many families adults speak to babies in simplified”. It is a Necessary Assumption question. Learn more about LSAT Necessary questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.