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Zorluk: ZorLogical Inferences

In historical linguistics, the comparative method reconstructs ancestral proto-languages by comparing cognates in daughter languages. Historically, scholars assumed that phonological sound laws operate without exception across an entire lexicon, meaning that any phonological change must affect all eligible words at the same time. However, recent analyses of the Sinitic language family show that certain high-frequency vocabulary items resisted sound changes for centuries, remaining phonetically conservative even in isolated dialects where dialect borrowing was impossible. Since these conservative items show no morphological alterations that could explain their resistance, linguists hypothesize that ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

  1. phonetic sound changes do not always affect all eligible words in a vocabulary simultaneously.Cevap
  2. B
    high-frequency words are more susceptible to dialect borrowing than low-frequency words are.
  3. C
    morphological restructuring is the primary driver of sound change in isolated Sinitic dialects.
  4. D
    the comparative method is ineffective for reconstructing proto-languages outside of the Sinitic family.

Cevap

phonetic sound changes do not always affect all eligible words in a vocabulary simultaneously.
The correct option is supported by the text's explanation of the historical assumption—that sound change affects all eligible words simultaneously—and the counterexample of Sinitic high-frequency words that resisted change despite no borrowing or morphological alterations. Thus, sound changes do not affect all words at once.

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1
Analyze the premise regarding historical linguistic assumptions and the Sinitic findings.
The premise is that sound changes were assumed to affect all words simultaneously, but Sinitic data showed high-frequency words resisting change.
Identifying the conflict between the traditional model and the new evidence is necessary to draw a logical inference.
2
Evaluate the ruled-out confounding factors.
Dialect borrowing and morphological restructuring are ruled out.
Eliminating these causes allows us to attribute the resistance directly to the nature of sound changes themselves.
3
Infer the conclusion that completes the hypothesis.
Sound change does not propagate through the entire lexicon at the same time.
This completes the text by addressing the unresolved contradiction.

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Logical Inferences
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Logical Inferences

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