Question

1. gracias, de nada, salud, buen provecho, estadounidense, te quiero
2. iron throne, direwolf, khaleesi, the wall, valyrian steel, night walkers
3. once a duck always a duck, show your \o,\ carson, emu, it never rains in autzen stadium, arts and letters, social science.

if you are a business major and have taken an accounting class, youve likely learned about the set of words in #1. if you are a photographer, you probably know the terminology in #2. if you speak spanish, then you understand the words in #3. if youre a game of thrones fan, then you recognize the words in #4. and if you are a uo student, then the words in #5 should seem familiar to you. sco ducks!
so you can see that discourse, or language, is one way that a community is bound together. it shapes it, strengthens it, and even will explore later in the course.
but what if you didnt know a group of words? lets say you are in a conversation with a group of people using the technical terms in #2, but your only camera is your iphone. or perhaps you are reading an article that is in spanish, but you dont know that language. how would you feel? you would probably feel confused, frustrated, and excluded.
because language and modes of communication differ among various groups, a discourse community can exclude others as much as it brings people together. think about one of the communities to which you belong. what is the discourse of that group? what is the shared language and terminology? what are the primary ways of communicating between members of the community? how do members communicate their ideas or activities with those outside of the community?
what is a discourse community to which you belong and...
· what are the unique characteristics of communicating within this community?
· how has it shaped the way you think and write?
· is it possible to assert your unique voice within that community? how so or why not?
what does writers example of specialized word lists (e.g., accounting terms, photography jargon, spanish phrases) primarily illustrate about discourse communities?
a that learning new words is the only way to join a professional group.
b that discourse communities are limited to people who speak the same native language.
c that technical vocabulary is only used in academic settings.
d that shared language helps define and unite members of a discourse community.

Explanation:

The passage emphasizes that shared language and terminology, like accounting terms for business - majors or photography jargon for photographers, help bind a discourse community together. It shows how language defines and unites members of such communities.

Answer:

D. That shared language helps define and unite members of a discourse community.