Our Words are Meaningless and Cannot be Distinguished from Their opposites GMAT Critical Reasoning

Question: Our words are meaningless and cannot be distinguished from their opposites, as can be proved by an example. People think that they know the difference between the meanings of "bald" and "having hair." Suppose an average person twenty-one years of age has N hairs on his or her head. We say that that person is not bald but has hair. But surely one hair less would make no difference, and a person with N - 1 hairs on his or her head would be said to have hair. Suppose we kept on, with one hair less each time. The result would be the same. But what would be the difference between someone who had one hair and someone who had none? We call them both bald. Nowhere can we make a distinction between "bald" and "having hair."

Which of the following statements best counters the argument above?

(A) The word "bald" can be translated into other languages.
(B) A word can have more than one meaning.
(C) A word such as "cat" can be applied to several animals that differ in some respects.
(D) Words can lack precision without being meaningless.
(E) People cannot think clearly without using words.

Correct Answer: D
Explanation: It asks for a counter to the argument, so we need a statement that makes the conclusion invalid. In this case, the conclusion is that "Our words are meaningless and cannot be distinguished from their opposites''. The rationale given here is that it's impossible to make a clear distinction between "bald" and "having hair", which are opposites.
Words can lack precision without being meaningless.- Correct. This suggests that the problem the author mentioned was not one of meaninglessness, but one of precision. It certainly adds up that "having hair" is imprecise about how much hair, and at what degree one is considered bald. By providing an alternative explanation, it weakens the argument that words are meaningless.

Let’s examine the other available options.

Option A
The word "bald" can be translated into other languages.- Incorrect. This is irrelevant. In English at least, the conclusion remains unaffected.

Option B
A word can have more than one meaning.- Incorrect. If a word can have multiple meanings, it still can suggest that there is little difference between a word and its opposite.

Option C
A word such as "cat" can be applied to several animals that differ in some respects.- Incorrect. This is similar to B. One word being applied to multiple situations and meanings.

Option E
People cannot think clearly without using words.- Incorrect. This is not relevant to the argument. We are not told enough about the link between thinking and meaning.

“Our words are meaningless and cannot be distinguished from their”- is a GMAT critical reasoning topic. This GMAT critical comes with five options and candidates need to choose the one which is correct. GMAT critical reasoning tests the logical and analytical skills of the candidates.

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