Q21 - Words like "employee," "payee," and

[rdown2b]

I had a really tough time understanding the stimulus. Especially the part "it refers to the party at which the other party's action is directed." Can someone tell me why A is wrong and D is right?

[timmydoeslsat]

This argument can be seen from an abstract view such as this:

Words that end with "X" are this type of thing.

However, it seems as if the word "A-X" is a counter example, because it is not the type of thing that words with an ending "X" is supposed to be (first sentence).

Well then, let's tweak that first statement (a generalization) so we can move beyond this problem of "A-X."

And this is where the author of the argument changes the wording of the generalization at the beginning so that the second statement cannot any longer be seen as ruining the generalization.


In the sense of the argument, the arguer starts off with a generalization of how words that end with "-ee" involve the person that has action direct TOWARDS them by somebody ELSE. (Such as a detainee being detained, or a payee being paid, etc.)

Well, the author then says, there is a caveat. The word absentee doesn't fit this mold because there isn't SOMEBODY ELSE directing an action towards this "-ee" as it the person him/herself!

So the author, then concludes that there is a statement that can resolve this issue with absentee. If we have a situation of a word ending in "-ee" refers to a 2 party (person) transaction, then it (the "-ee") refers to the person having the action taken against them.

As you can see with D, this shows us how the argument used the counterexample. It did not dismiss it. It did not show it to be false. It did not show that the original generalization could live with the counterexample. The author knew the generalization had to be altered. It used it to narrow its original generalization.

[maryadkins]

Great explanation! Hopefully that clarifies things.

As for (A), it's wrong because there is no "misanalysis" of the word absentee. The author doesn't say anything about anyone misanalyzing it. He/she just says, hey! Here's a word that doesn't seem to fit the mold. But let's make the mold smaller. Now it's not a problem.

[lhermary]

why is E wrong?

[erho]

Same question... Why is E wrong?

[timmydoeslsat]

I do not think E would be tempting if we truly understand what our stimulus is telling us. So let's speak to that end.

We are told of a generalization. This generalization is that words that end with "ee" represent a person to whom an action is being performed towards by another person. The argument lists a couple of words that are consistent with this generalization: payee, employee, etc. However, the arguer has come across a word where this generalization does not hold, the word absentee. An absentee person does not have this action performed towards himself or herself. Rather than throw out the generalization, the argument makes a modification: this previously specified rule at the beginning of the argument still holds as long as we are dealing with a word that involves a two-party situation. This will not allow a word such as absentee to ruin the generalization.

So what has this argument done? It has responded to an inconsistency with a generalization and has modified the generalization for it to continue to exist. Thats exactly what D says.

Answer choices:

A) Misanalysis? Absolutely not. Nowhere is it stated that the word absentee and how it affects the generalization given is a misanalysis.

B) Dismisses the counterexample? In fact, it uses the counterexample to amend the generalization.

C) Does not say that the generalization has an exception. In fact, the arguer changes the generalization so that the counterexample is no longer an exception.

E) The argument does not believe the counterexample to be false in any way. An adjustment is made due to the arguer believing this counterexample to be true.

[emilycyoung1]

The answer is E, someone may want to delete this post as it could be confusing to some people.

[ralph.mercer]

Hey,

the answer is definitely D! It says so in the answer key.