Topic: reaction paper

Paper details: Readings Be sure you've read Chapter 5 "Verbal Messages" in your textbook before you begin any of the week's assignments. Then read my comments below before you read the assignment: "Almost Before We Spoke, We Swore" by Natalie Angier, which was published in the New York Times September 20, 2005. This article has won much well-deserved recognition in both the science and linguistics fields. In reading the article on swearing, you are asked to suspend judgment for a moment and bring your mind to a scholarly level of thinking about words as simply sounds that have no meaning except that which an individual may ascribe to it. The word is innocent. Like a stone, or a musical note, it simply is. One individual may believe the word sound means one thing, and it may be a beautiful thought that makes the heart grow warm. Another individual may think the same word sound means another very different thing, and that may be a terrible, heinous, frightening thing that makes one tremble. Has the word changed? No. It is still a simple sound in nature. The meanings exist in the people's minds and may or may not be shared by others. Some meanings exist in one person's mind alone, some in just the minds of those who shared an experience or history. Some meanings exist within communities which have some sort of formal organization based on commonly-held beliefs. Other word sound meanings may be shared by entire language groups. Few, if any, are shared by all people worldwide. So, while we may feel strongly about the moral implications of using curse words or by certain word sounds that have special meanings to our own group, keep in mind that as a scholar you are taking a world view. Your cultural rules are no more going to apply to the Arabs and the Chinese than theirs are to yours. You are mentally disengaging yourself, for the purpose of this exercise from passing judgment, and you are taking a clear and unbiased look at how all cultures express emotions, actions and ideas through certain sound patterns which they interpret as words. Now, go to "Almost Before We Spoke, We Swore"???????????, read the article, and post your (scholarly) reaction to this article (based on what you read in Chapter 5 in the text, using references and quotes) on discussion link Module 4: Curses We Spoke. Be sure you read what others have written and join in the class discussion in order to have participation credit.