Growing up, I have always spoken two languages: English and Spanish. Because I was born to two immigrant parents with their first language being Spanish, my first language (at one point) was Spanish as well; However, English would eventually become my primary language as I started to speak it more frequently. I find this detail important in relation to this assignment, since I think it really shows how differently I use and speak language in comparison to my mother. For instance, my mother has a very thick Peruvian accent when she is speaking English, and I (for the most part) do not have much of a Peruvian accent when I speak English. If anything, I can say I have an accent (New York/Staten Island) when I pronounce certain words in English as opposed to my mother, especially when I pronounce the word “water”; which I pronounce as “Wha-ter”, with an emphasis on the first wh sound, with my mother (and other family members) pronouncing it as “wah-ter” as they learned it that way. Another example of a difference between me and my mother’s use of language comes from the way that we speak Spanish. For example, Peruvians pronounce the word “frijoles” as “frejoles”, replacing the /i/ sound with an /e/ sound according to the way my mother (and my other family members) pronounce it. I pronounce the word in Spanish as “frijoles”, since I recognize that there is a /i/ sound in the word, and that is the way that my other hispanic friends pronounce the word as well. Overall, I think as the generations go on, the way we use language will drastically change as time flies, as people will find new ways to use and pronounce words.

Proposition : I study at the College of Staten Island

Truth Value : True 

Truth Conditions: In order for this to be true, I will have to have my name registered on their system

Entailment: “I study at the College of Staten Island” entails that “I am a student”

Proposition : I have 6 pet cats

Truth Value : False

Truth Conditions: In order for this to be true, I will have to actually own cats and have exactly 6 of them

Entailment: “I have 6 pet cats” entails that “ I have a pet cat”

Proposition : Scientists have discovered the most powerful medicine in the world that can cure anything

Truth Value : Unknown

Truth Conditions: In order for this to be true, the medicine discovered would have to prove itself to work for anything with actual evidence from a study

Entailment: “Scientists have discovered the most powerful medicine in the world that can cure anything” entails that “a cure has been found for all diseases”

There are many words in the English language that were borrowed from other foreign languages in order to create a new yet familiar word. For example, the word “ranch” [raanch] in English is pronounced in IPA as /ræn(t)ʃ/ and was borrowed from the donor language of Spanish using their word “rancho” [ran-choh], pronounced in IPA as /ˈræn(t)ʃoʊ/. The word “ranch” in English refers to a large farm where cattle animals are raised. In Spanish, the word “rancho” was historically used in Latin or Spanish America to refer to a village or hut for travelers to settle in. However, the meaning of this word has changed with the progression of modern times (with the influences of western culture due to borrowing the original word) and is widely correlated with farm land for the most part, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. In terms of pronunciation, these two words differ as “ranch” in English only has one syllable stressed throughout the word, as opposed to “rancho” in Spanish having two syllables; the last one being stressed. Along with this, the English language omitted the last /o/ in “rancho” in order to help adapt it with their phonotactic constraints since the majority of words found end with a consonant rather than a vowel. In Spanish, the /ch/ sound is generally followed by a vowel in order to stress out the final syllable.