I decided to talk to my mother in regard to the English language because we are quite different when we speak it. To start off, me and my mother have different accents from each other. I would be more understandable to someone who may have grown up in the United States, like myself. However, she may be more understandable to someone who, like her, did not grow up in the United States. The words we use are also different. My mother tends to speak with simpler words, and does not have a very clear understanding of more complex words that may appear in a document for example. I am different as I am able to comprehend and use more complex terms like “comprehend” or “evaluate”, words that my mother does not fully understand. Another thing to note is that my mother is from a country which was formerly under British rule. My mother tends to use “maths” as opposed to “math”. In the United States, we use “math”, which is what I use as well. She may use different terms to refer to the same things we are both referring to. She may refer to a couch as a “settee”, and I will just refer to it as a couch. My mother is also used to different spellings like “colour”, which once again is due to her being from a country formerly under British rule. Another major difference in the way that we speak is that my mother does not use certain expressions that are said here in the United States. For example, she does not say expressions like “pain in the neck” or “too good to be true”. I do say these expressions from time to time. 

Sentence one:

• Proposition: I have a cat.
• Truth value: True.
• Truth conditions: For this to be true, I would need a cat to live inside my house.
• Entailment: “I have a cat” entails “I have a pet”.

Sentence two:

• Proposition: I have 34 eyes.
• Truth value: False.
• Truth conditions: I would actually have to have 34 eyes somewhere on my body.
• Entailment: “I have 34 eyes” entails “I have more than two eyes”.

Sentence three:

• Proposition: There is an elephant sized rat wandering in my backyard.
• Truth value: Unknown.
• Truth conditions: For this to be true, there must be a rat the size of an elephant wandering in my backyard.
• Entailment: “There is an elephant sized rat wandering in my backyard” would entail “There is a rodent in my backyard.”

The word that I will be using is guru. This word was borrowed from the Sanskrit language for the English language. In the donor language, this word is pronounced as gu-ru (guːruː). In the borrowing language, it is pronounced as GOOR-oo (ɡʊˌru). There is a difference between the two pronunciations. In the donor language (Sanskrit), guru is said much quicker than it is in English. In English (borrowing language), the letters g and u are exaggerated (said like “goo”) and held while then transitioning to the letter r. The letter r is also somewhat exaggerated as well. After that, the letters r and u are also exaggerated (said like “roo”). Notice that most words beginning with the letters g and u are not said like this in English. This could be due to the fact that we tend to stress certain letters or symbols when we talk. In this case, the letter u was very stressed, although the letter r was also slightly stressed as well.

When reflecting on the past classes that I have taken during my educational journey, I cannot explicitly recall being told not to use a word like ain’t. However, that does not mean that it has never happened before. Though my memory of the rules taught in school are very blurry, I can safely assume many of the prescriptive rules I learned in school taught me how to speak in a “proper” manner. Basically, these prescriptive rules are the reason that I am even typing the way that I am right now. I was never told that ain’t was less valid than aren’t, but I did know that ain’t was not preferred compared to other words. I was most likely taught this, or I developed an understanding myself. There was never really a reason as to why some forms were not preferred. The teachers most likely stated that it was an incorrect way of speaking without giving an actual explanation, which makes sense considering a young child probably would not understand, or even care for an actual explanation. I was most likely taught not to use the double negative through the use of textbooks and activities done in class. Even when looking around a classroom, you can see examples of prescriptive rules because of educational posters on the walls. They are not direct, but indirect ways of teaching children what is “right”, and what is “wrong”. I personally do not use ain’t with anyone. I also do not use the double negative. It is because of the way that I was taught to speak and write.