Whether the languages of the ancient American peoples were used for
expressing abstract universal concepts can be clearly answered in the
case of Nahuatl. Nahuatl, like Greek and German, is a language that
allows the formation of extensive compounds. By the combination of
radicals or semantic elements, single compound words can express
complex conceptual relations, often of an abstract universal
character.
The tlamatinime (“those who know”) were able to use this rich stock of abstract terms to express the nuances of their thought. They
also availed themselves of other forms of expression with metaphorical
meaning, some probably original, some derived from Toltec coinages. Of
these forms the most characteristic in Nahuatl is the juxtaposition of
two words that, because they are synonyms, associated terms, or even
contraries, complement each other to evoke one single idea. Used as
metaphor, the juxtaposed terms connote specific or essential traits of
the being they refer to, introducing a mode of poetry as an almost
habitual form of expression.I have answer the question from the passage:
A main purpose of the passage is to
- delineate the function of the tlamatinime in Nahuatl society
- explain the abstract philosophy of the Nahuatl thinkers
- describe some conceptual and aesthetic resources of the Nahuatl
language- argue against a theory of poetic expression by citing evidence about
the Nahuatl- explore the rich metaphorical heritage the Nahuatl received from the
ToltecsI couldn’t paraphrase the passage so Sound perplexing to get the answer.
Can someone explain please.The answer is given (3) but my guess was (2). Is there any easy trick to get the answer easily?
Answer
The passage is primarily about language, which is why (3) is the correct answer.
The paragraph is talking about how the Nahuatl language forms compound words (like German does) and how it combines other words to form rich metaphors. More importantly, just about every sentence is talking about language in one way or another:
Whether the languages of the ancient American peoples were used for expressing abstract universal concepts can be clearly answered in the case of Nahuatl. Nahuatl is a language that, like Greek and German, allows the formation of extensive compounds. By the combination of radicals or semantic elements, single compound words can express complex conceptual relations, often of an abstract universal character. The tlamatinime (“those who know”) were able to use this rich stock of abstract terms to express the nuances of their thought. They also availed themselves of other forms of expression with metaphorical meaning, some probably original, some derived from Toltec coinages. Of these forms the most characteristic in Nahuatl is the juxtaposition of two words that, because they are synonyms, associated terms, or even contraries, complement each other to evoke one single idea. Used as metaphor, the juxtaposed terms connote specific or essential traits of the being they refer to, introducing a mode of poetry as an almost habitual form of expression.
Test questions like this one ask about the main purpose of the passage. To prevent the test from being too easy, test questions will often include tangential purposes as well. For example, in this question, language is indeed used to express complex thoughts, which might lead some to choose (2). Also, Nahuatl did get some ideas about metaphors from the Toltecs, so (5) is true as well – but it’s not the main point of the passage.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : user2378 , Answer Author : J.R.
