Question Details

Statements: Only speech is language
Some debate is speech
All debate is practice

Conclusions: I. Some speech is not practice
II. All debate can be language

In each question below some statements are given followed by some conclusions. You have to take the given statements to be true even if they seem to be at variance with commonly known facts. Read all the conclusions and then decide which of the given conclusions definitely follows from the given statements, disregarding commonly known facts. Give an answer.

Options

A

Only conclusion I follows

B

Only conclusion II follows

C

Either conclusion I or II follows

D

Neither conclusion I nor II follows

Show Answer

Correct Answer :

Option A

Only conclusion I follows

Solution :

To determine which of the given conclusions logically follow, we analyze the provided statements step-by-step using standard rules of Syllogism and Venn diagrams.

Let us analyze the statements:
1. "Only speech is language": This statement is a restatement of the conditional "All language is speech", with the critical addition that "language" cannot intersect with any class other than "speech". That is, the set of "Language" is completely contained inside the set of "Speech", and no part of "Language" can ever belong to or overlap with any other category (like "debate" or "practice").
2. "Some debate is speech": This means there is a common intersection between the set of "Debate" and the set of "Speech".
3. "All debate is practice": This means the entire set of "Debate" is contained inside the set of "Practice".

Now, let us evaluate the conclusions:

Conclusion I: "Some speech is not practice"
From Statement 1, we know that "language" is a subset of "speech" and it cannot overlap with any other term because of the "Only" constraint. Since "language" is a part of "speech" and cannot overlap with "practice", that specific part of "speech" which is "language" can never be "practice". Thus, there is definitely a portion of "speech" (specifically, the "language" portion) that is not "practice". Therefore, Conclusion I definitely follows.

Conclusion II: "All debate can be language"
The term "can be" indicates a possibility. However, because of the statement "Only speech is language", the category "language" is exclusive to "speech". "Language" cannot overlap with any other element like "debate". Therefore, it is impossible for any "debate" to be "language", meaning "All debate can be language" is false. Thus, Conclusion II does not follow.

Consequently, only Conclusion I follows.

Unlock Our Free Library

Access expert-curated educational resources and study materials—completely free.

Discover more resources

You may also like

Mock Tests

View All
  • CLAT
  • intermediate
  • 2 hours
  • current affairs, general knowledge, legal reasoning, logical reasoning, quant

  • CLAT
  • intermediate
  • 2 hours
  • current affairs, english, general knowledge, legal reasoning, logical reasoning, quant

Ask AI Tutor
5 left
Q1 View Question & Options
AI Tutor is solving this question...
Reading question context & options...