The Papuan languages of the islands east of mainland Papua New Guinea, including the Bismarcks, Bougainville, Solomons, and Louisiade Archipelago,...
GMAT Multi Source Reasoning : (MSR) Questions
The Papuan languages of the islands east of mainland Papua New Guinea, including the Bismarcks, Bougainville, Solomons, and Louisiade Archipelago, have almost no detectable similarities in vocabulary. In contrast to neighboring Austronesian languages, linguistic analysis of these Papuan languages done by comparison of vocabularies cannot determine their historical relationships. We thus have reason to believe that ancient Papuans arrived on the islands longer than 5,000 or 7,000 years ago, where the various groups have lived in relative isolation from one another.
On the basis of the fact that grammar changes more slowly than vocabulary, researchers developed a new method of discerning relationships, including historical relationships, on the basis of grammatical similarities. Applying this method to the Papuan languages, the researchers found, as expected, that the relationships correlated with the islands and archipelagos on which the languages occur.
One interesting result was this. Although Bougainville lies between the Solomon Islands and the Bismarcks, the languages of the Solomons grammatically fell in between those of the Bismarcks and Bougainville. The researchers hypothesize that this discrepancy arose because, ten thousand years ago, Bougainville and the Solomons were joined in a single land mass, facilitating migration, while the Bismarcks were separate.
For each of the following statements about the Papuan languages of the Louisiade Archipelago and the Solomons, select Yes if the statement is strongly suggested by the discussion and research results pertaining to the Papuan languages. Otherwise, select No.
OWNING THE DATASET
Understanding Source A: Text Source - Discussion
| Information from Source | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "The Papuan languages of the islands east of mainland Papua New Guinea...have almost no detectable similarities in vocabulary" |
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| "linguistic analysis of these Papuan languages done by comparison of vocabularies cannot determine their historical relationships" |
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| "ancient Papuans arrived on the islands longer than 5,000 or 7,000 years ago, where the various groups have lived in relative isolation" |
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| "grammar changes more slowly than vocabulary" |
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| "researchers developed a new method...on the basis of grammatical similarities" |
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| "relationships correlated with the islands and archipelagos on which the languages occur" |
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| "the languages of the Solomons grammatically fell in between those of the Bismarcks and Bougainville" |
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| "ten thousand years ago, Bougainville and the Solomons were joined in a single land mass...while the Bismarcks were separate" |
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Summary: Research reveals that Papuan languages east of PNG have extreme vocabulary diversity from thousands of years of isolation, but grammatical analysis shows unexpected relationships that point to different ancient geography where some islands were connected 10,000 years ago.
Understanding Source B: Diagram - Language Tree
| Information from Source | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "The diagram shows the grammatical relationships between the languages" |
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| "the node at which Kuot is located is between those for Lavukaleve and Mali" |
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| "Distances between nodes are rough indicators of grammatical distance" |
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| "color indicates archipelago or major island" |
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| Visual observation: Two main color groups (orange and blue/teal) |
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Summary: The tree diagram visualizes the grammatical relationships described in the text, confirming that languages cluster by geographic location while revealing the complex branching patterns within island groups.
Understanding Source C: Map - Migration Map
| Information from Source | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "The map shows the locations of speakers of existing Papuan languages" |
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| "a possible migration route from Papua New Guinea that may be consistent with the researchers' hypothesis" |
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| Visual observation: Dotted lines showing paths from PNG |
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| Visual observation: Language names marked at island locations |
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Summary: The migration map shows current language locations and a hypothetical ancient route that explains how languages spread eastward from PNG, supporting the theory that ancient land connections created the unexpected grammatical relationships observed today.
Overall Summary
The combined analysis reveals a coherent narrative about Papuan languages east of PNG:
- Ancient Papuans migrated eastward from mainland PNG over 5,000-7,000 years ago when different land connections existed (Bougainville and Solomons were joined)
- Long isolation preserved distinct languages with almost no vocabulary similarities, requiring new grammatical analysis methods
- The grammatical tree diagram confirms languages cluster by islands but reveals the Solomons' unexpected position between Bismarcks and Bougainville languages
- This puzzle is solved by the ancient geography - when Solomons and Bougainville were connected 10,000 years ago, allowing migration patterns that created today's grammatical relationships
- The migration map illustrates how this ancient movement created the current distribution of grammatically-related languages across the island chains
Question Analysis
For each statement about Papuan languages in the Louisiade Archipelago and Solomons, determine if the research discussion strongly supports that claim.
Key Constraints:
- Must be 'strongly suggested' by the discussion
- Specifically about Louisiade and Solomons Papuan languages
- Answer Yes or No for each statement
Answer Type Needed: Fact verification - checking if statements are supported by the research findings, including reasonable inferences from the evidence.
Connecting to Our Analysis
The collated analysis contains information about vocabulary similarities, grammatical analysis methods, geographic groupings of Papuan languages, and comparative information about Austronesian languages. Need to evaluate three specific claims against this information.
Can answer from analysis alone: YES - The analysis contains sufficient information about vocabulary similarities, research methods, and comparative language family data to make informed inferences about each statement.
Extracting Relevant Findings
Evaluating three statements about Louisiade and Solomons Papuan languages. Source A states Papuan languages have 'almost no detectable similarities in vocabulary' while Austronesian languages have 'detectable similarities,' and researchers used grammatical analysis for Papuan languages.
Hypothesis: Each statement must be evaluated against what is explicitly stated or strongly implied through logical inference from the sources.
Individual Statement/Option Evaluations
Statement 1 Evaluation
Statement: These two groups differ more grammatically than some Austronesian language groups do
- Criterion: Compare linguistic differences between Papuan and Austronesian language groups
- Evidence: The passage provides a clear contrast: Papuan languages have 'almost no detectable similarities in vocabulary' while Austronesian languages have 'detectable similarities'
- Analysis: Since vocabulary and grammatical features both reflect linguistic relationships, and the passage indicates Papuan languages show much greater differences than Austronesian languages, it's reasonable to infer that some neighboring Austronesian language groups would be more similar to each other than the Louisiade and Solomon Papuan languages are to each other
- Conclusion: Strongly supported by comparative evidence
Statement 2 Evaluation
Statement: These groups share few or no words identified as the same by researchers
- Criterion: Direct evidence about vocabulary similarities
- Evidence: Source A explicitly states Papuan languages of the islands 'including the Bismarcks, Bougainville, Solomons, and Louisiade Archipelago, have almost no detectable similarities in vocabulary'
- Analysis: This directly supports that the Louisiade and Solomon groups share few or no words identified as the same
- Conclusion: Explicitly supported by source material
Statement 3 Evaluation
Statement: These languages evolved more recently than Jabem or Gapapalwa from Papua New Guinea
- Criterion: Evidence about evolutionary timeline and development
- Evidence: Sources indicate ancient Papuans arrived on the islands 'longer than 5,000 or 7,000 years ago' and lived in relative isolation
- Analysis: The migration pattern and mention of ancient arrival times suggest these island languages have been developing for a very long time. No evidence suggests they evolved more recently than mainland Papua New Guinea languages like Jabem or Gapapalwa
- Conclusion: Not supported by available evidence
Systematic Checking
Checking each statement against all available source information and reasonable inferences:
- Statement 1: Source provides comparative information showing Papuan languages have much greater differences than Austronesian languages, supporting the inference that some Austronesian groups are more similar than the Papuan groups in question
- Statement 2: Source A explicitly confirms almost no vocabulary similarities between Papuan language groups including Louisiade and Solomons
- Statement 3: Sources indicate ancient development of island languages with no evidence of more recent evolution compared to mainland languages
Final Answer
- Statement 1: YES
- Statement 2: YES
- Statement 3: NO
The two groups are more different from one another in their grammatical features than some groups of neighboring Austronesian languages are.
They have few words, if any, determined by the researchers to be the same as words of the others.
They evolved more recently than did Jabem or Gapapalwa, spoken on Papua New Guinea.