Question

word creators
william shakespeare is widely credited with adding more than 1,700 new words to the english language in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. yet some scholars question that estimate, suggesting that some of the
ew\ words credited to shakespeare may have already been in use when he incorporated them into his plays. so if shakespeare didnt radically change the english language, then who did?
according to some language experts, young women, rather than men, are actually responsible for inventing most new words. two linguists at the university of helsinki in finland analyzed six thousand letters written between 1417 and 1681. they found that female letter writers changed the way they wrote more often than their male counterparts. one reason could be that women often have more social connections than men, and social connections allow people to introduce each other to new uses of words.
what is the main, or central, idea of the passage?
recent research suggests that the language changes that occurred in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries owed a great deal to female letter writers.
shakespeare is often credited with adding many new words to the english language.
researchers at the university of helsinki studied letters written between 1417 and 1681 to try to discover how new words enter the language.

Explanation:

The passage starts by questioning Shakespeare's role in changing the English language, then presents research showing young women (specifically female letter writers) were more responsible for new word invention. The first option captures this central idea about language changes in the 15th - 16th centuries and female letter writers' contribution. The second option only focuses on Shakespeare, which is a starting point, not the main idea. The third option focuses on the research method, not the main conclusion about who drove language change.

Answer:

A. Recent research suggests that the language changes that occurred in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries owed a great deal to female letter writers.