For this assignment I chose to speak with my mom about the different ways we use language together. She had told me that growing up she would pronounce and spell words differently since she learned English at 16 years old. Spanish being her first language she has a accent, and learned English through popular tv shows and speaking with other English speakers. Since language is always evolving, I will sometimes tell her what new sayings or “slang” is popular today. However, at the time she learned English, she used other sayings among her friends. This shows that over time new terminology is made and forgotten. I would say the way we use English differs greatly between us, as I never learned Spanish. She often switches between the two languages while talking, using English in her everyday conversations. All in all, I would say English changed over time through new slang, writing, and the introduction of new words.

As we learned in class recently, propositions are claims expressed by a sentence, which either are true or false. Each proposition has a truth value, which is whether a statement has a true or false choice. This ties in with truth conditions, which are the conditions the world would be in for a proposition to be true. Lastly, entailment relates to two statements, where one implies the other. Three examples of all of these aspects of a proposition are shown below.

1) Proposition- There was an earthquake in New York City on April 5th 2024. Truth value- True Truth conditions- In order for this to be true, an earthquake would have had to take place in New York on that exact date. Entailment- “There was an earthquake in New York City on April 5th 2024” entails “An earthquake took place on April 5th somewhere in the world”

2) Proposition- I have two sisters Truth value- False Truth conditions- I would have to have exactly two sisters in my immediate family. Entailment- “I have two sisters” entails “I have at least one sister”

3) Proposition- More people drink coffee compared to tea. Truth value- Unknown Truth conditions- A valid scientific study would have to be conducted to show that a majority of people favor coffee. Entailment- “Most people drink coffee compared to tea” entails “People can drink coffee and tea”

When I had to study Spanish back in high school, I noticed a lot of Spanish words were similar to English. Most of the time, words describing foods, or animals were spelled the same. An example of a English word that was borrowed from Spanish is, “Coyote” phonetic translation being, [Kai Jəʊ ti]. While the spanish phonetic translation is, [Ko jo te]. The main differences being the ending pronouncation, when Spanish uses the [e] sound, English replaced that with [i]. Same goes with [o] in the Spanish translation, English uses [əʊ] to pronounce the middle of the word. The last difference is the sound after K, [ai] is seen in English, while Spanish once again uses [o]. Another example is the Spanish word “tornado” phonetic translation [toɾ na do]. While in English it is pronounced “tɔɹ nei doʊ]. The main difference I noticed between these two similar words is, in the Spanish pronouncation [a] is emphasized. While in English, [e] and [i] replaced that Spanish [a] sound. Although both words being spelled exactly the same, and having the same meaning,. The pronounciation between both languages differ.

Thinking back to when I was first learning the basics of grammar in elementary school, I would always struggle to use language in a way that was acceptable to my teachers. Coming from a Spanish speaking family, I would pronounce words as my mother taught me. This was always a problem with my teachers, as they would tell me to improve on my grammar and spelling. One memory that stuck with me is my constant bad grades in writing. I would always use “you and me” in my writing, instead of “you and I”. I would also pronounce words differently, having trouble with run on sentences and double negatives which translated to my writing. Another point that my teachers always enforced was no use of slang or abbreviations. Even today, my spelling isnt the best, and I do struggle with public speaking. I would say that prescriptivism was the basis of my early education. From a young age practicing how we speak is crucial to our ability to speak. However, the strict rules and standards that prescriptivism enforces isnt necessarily how we should understand language. Although I would say my teachers in elementary school helped my writing in the long run, I wish there were fewer rules when it comes to speaking formally.