CAT 2024 Slot 1 VARC · Question 13
The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that
best captures the essence of the passage.
Certain codes may, of course, be so
widely distributed in a specific language community or culture, and be learned at so
early an age, that they appear not to be constructed – the effect of an articulation
between sign and referent – but to be 'naturally' given. Simple visual signs appear to
have achieved a 'near-universality' in this sense: though evidence remains that even
apparently 'natural' visual codes are culture specific. However, this does not mean that
no codes have intervened; rather, that the codes have been profoundly naturalized. The
operation of naturalized codes reveals not the transparency and 'naturalness' of
language but the depth, the habituation and the near-universality of the codes in use.
They produce apparently 'natural' recognitions. This has the (ideological) effect of
concealing the practices of coding which are present.
- A.Learning linguistic and visual signs at an early age makes all such codes appear natural. This naturalization of codes is the effect of ideology.
- B.Language and visual signs are codes. However, some of the codes are so widespread that they not only seem naturally given but also hide the mechanism of coding behind the signs.
- C.All codes, linguistic and visual, have a natural origin but some are so widespread that they become universal. This is what hides the mechanism of coding behind signs.
- D.Not all codes are natural but certain codes are naturalized and made to appear universal. Ideology aims to hide the mechanism of coding behind signs.
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