What does the author propose to settle the question of whether speakers would prefer to keep their language?
Linguists estimate that many of the world's languages will fall silent within a century. The loss is often described as a loss of knowledge, and with reason: a language holds a community's names for plants, its stories and its way of reasoning. Yet some commentators say that the loss is the price of progress, as speakers choose languages that offer wider opportunities. It is true that no language survives without speakers who choose it. But the choice is not made in a vacuum. Where a language is excluded from school, courts and the market, parents who choose the dominant language for their children are responding to pressure and not to preference. The question is whether the community would choose differently if its language were given room, and that can be tested only by giving it room.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: D. Giving the language room in public life and observing what the community chooses
- Step 1: The final sentence says it can be tested only by giving the language room.
- Step 2: The only choice consistent with this is "Giving the language room in public life and observing what the community chooses".
Answer
Giving the language room in public life and observing what the community chooses.
Why not the others: Prediction by linguists, banning, dictionaries and surveys are not proposed; surveys would not remove the pressure.
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