# PTE SST #13: Comparative Linguistics and Basic...

Summarize Spoken Text #13 - Level 2 - Feeds Writing + Listening

> You will hear a short lecture. Write a summary on what you have just heard from the lecture in your own words.You have 10 minutes to finish this task. Your response will be judged on the Quality of Your writing and on how well your response presents the key points presented in the lecture.

## Answer

The speaker explains that historical linguists compare languages by analyzing basic vocabulary. Words like "head," "water," or "mother" are universally present, unlike culturally specific ones. By identifying similarities in these common terms, linguists trace language evolution and relationships. Hence, language comparison reveals shared roots and helps understand cultural and linguistic development across regions.

## Explanation

A correct summary accurately captures the speaker's main point: that linguists compare languages by identifying universal, basic vocabulary terms like body parts, family members, and natural elements. It should also mention that these terms are chosen because they are common across most cultures, unlike more specific or culturally dependent words.

## Hints

- Focus on the speaker's definition of how linguists compare languages.
- Note the examples provided, such as words for body parts and family members, to understand what constitutes 'basic vocabulary'.

## Transcript

Well a historical linguist compares languages at several levels. You start out looking for basic vocabulary. All languages of the world, natural languages at least, have words for eye and head and nose and ear and for sky and earth and for water, sand and for sibling, mother and father. They may not have words for uncle and aunt. It becomes much vaguer because in one culture an aunt is different when it comes from your father's side than from your mother's side. You don't include snow. Most people know what snow is but in the tropics you don't have it. So you look for notions that are totally comparable and that occur everywhere in the world. You take the hundred or two hundred most universal notions in the human life, those which you call the basic vocabulary. So you take basic vocabularies and languages that you think are related. You look for words that sound the same.

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