Linguist: The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis states that a society's world view is influenced by the language or languages i...

shunhe on August 17, 2020

Hi @michellesheinker@gmail.com,

Thanks for the question! So let’s take a look at the argument first. We’re told that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis tells us that a society’s world view is influenced by the language/languages that its members speak. But this hypothesis can’t be tested, and so it doesn’t have the verifiability of hypotheses of physical science.

Now we’re asked for something that’s most supported by the passage. So let’s take a look at (B), which tells us that only the hypotheses of physical science are verifiable. Is that true, do we know this based on the passage? We’re told that the hypotheses of physical science are certainly verifiable. But does that mean that nothing else is? Nothing in this short stimulus would suggest so. And so the word “only” makes this answer choice too strong, and thus incorrect. (D), however, follows directly from the stimulus, since we know the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis isn’t verifiable, and so we don’t know whether it’s true or false (since that’s what verifiability is). And so (D) is a better answer choice.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.