Chapters 1 and 2 were so long ago

I think way back when we were supposed to post about chapter 1, I was going to post about "ain't" which many people have done since. I just found it interesting that it was in common usage in the old days, because I didn't know that at all, and I feel like I've read enough novels that are set far enough back, or written far enough back that ain't would show up as a valid verb form, but it doesn't. For chapter 2 I just have to comment on diagramming and how it does make sense most of the time, but when there are exceptions, they really throw me off. Probably because before this class I'd never done diagramming before, like most of the rest of the class who went to public school in Oregon.

The use of "ain't" being proper and our current study of verb tenses makes me think about Eliza Doolittle in the musical "My Fair Lady." She's a "common flowergirl" with a Cockney accent, and Professor Higgins has made a bet with his friend that he can pass her off as nobility within a few month, so he has to teach her to speak "proper" British English. When she has her break through and forms words "properly," they take her to the races at Ascot to introduce her to society and see if they can pass her off as upper class. To the chagrin of Professor Higgins, Eliza doesn't know proper grammar. She tells a story with perfectly spoken words, saying "She come to so sudden she bit the bowl off the spoon" and "And what become of her new straw hat that should have come to me?" All the upper society people think this is very strange, and Higgins covers his tracks by calling it "the new small talk" but later teaches her grammar. The scene is funny because she sounds so proper, yet her grammar is absolutely horrible. The disjunction is what creates the humor, because the grammar is so jarring. And I thought this was a good example of why at least knowing "proper" grammar, or at least verb tense, is so important, because it elevates the status of the speaker so much.