To summarize my topic in a few hundred words is going to be difficult because I’m not really sure what my topic is going to be yet. However I did my reading on Words and specifically word aversion and the  concept of word aversion in American Sign Language.

Words are a essential part of our social beings. More than words is the concept of language. My research started in a video on words and specifically bad words. It is said that Marchex did a study in 2013 on conversations done in call centers throughout the year. They realized that people in Ohio cursed the most on those calls saying F*** and Sh** the most, while Washington State said the least amount of profane words. Then the vlogger went into the how in the 1600-1800’s when you were to curse using the Lords name it was said that you physically injured Him. This led to the idea of different levels of Sociability, ie  using the word defecate vs sh**. One is used in a medical professional setting, while one has become a vulgar word used in everyday language. This turned into a comparative look on words in society, looking back to old English when it was the difference in society that defined the language you spoke. For example low class would call their meet by the animal name, chicken or cow, while upper class would say poultry or beef. This led to looking into society and how we change the meaning of words or even make words more or less acceptable. For example, how sex and profanity are becoming more acceptable, while identity, religion and pronoun usage is becoming more unacceptable. This led me to the topic I think I am going to continue researching which is word aversion which is an intense and irrational disgust for a particular word or phrase, for me the word is moist..I really cannot stand the word moist. This led me to a book called Forbidden signs which had a topic discussed by Professor Benjamin Pettingill who has been doing research on aversion in American Sign Language. He says that Sign Language aversion comes with the “Natural Language” that comes with Sign Language, which can be described as facial expressions, countenance, and involuntary muscle movement. This means that the aversion comes with the facial expression paired with the actual sign. This video is a good example of sign paired with facial expression with aversion because it shows the emotion behind the sign, you know exactly how the song emotions should be heard. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdly3HBnj-s) However take a look at this video, he has no facial expression so honestly if i didnt know sign language I would have no idea what he was trying to say.(https://www.signingsavvy.com/sign/DISGUST/3301/1) Professor Pettingill says that went as far to say that you cannot have a sign language without the natural language. The fact that word aversion does not come natural in ASL is pretty interesting, only when it is paired with a facial expression or an element of Natural Language can it have some sort of word aversion.

Writing has never really been my thing. From my lit teacher that never liked my writing, to my comp teacher who absolutely loved my writing. I never thought what I had to say was important and the things that I wanted to say, i didn’t know how to convey them. During my sophomore year of high school, my teacher asked us to read an article, similar to the chapter written by Ballenger, on picking a topic that I enjoyed and expanding on it. Then the assignment to go along with the article, was to write on something, anything that I enjoyed. Well, me being a teen who thought nothing was important enough to write about in my first college class in high school. I sat for hours trying to think of something. Now I kinda wish I had Ballenger’s formula on writing, because sparking that one idea has always been hard for me. SPARKING A SPARK THAT DIDN’T EXIST. I didn’t know how to pick a topic that I enjoyed. SO finally I picked some random topic, probably swimming, because that was my life at the time. But then I ran into the issue that Reid wrote about, exigency. WHAT WAS I SUPPOSE TO WRITE. Instead of going into this in depth study on swimming, I did a surface level research job and a mediocre writing job on a topic that I loved but didn’t think there was much more to write about. Flash forward to today,SPARK, I have finally figured out a way, other than Ballenger’s to make a SPARK. I do word studies. I enjoy studying and reading the bible. But I had an issue, many of the words I didn’t understand the actual word or even the heart behind it. SO what I started doing was word studies on those words, looking at the Hebrew and Greek, getting a better understanding of what I was reading. This turned into me doing extensive research, gaining an exigency 😉 on different topics of the bible. I have now written numerous bible studies on cosmology, faithfulness, steadfastness, watchmen, and many others, all because I started these word students. I think what Ballenger is saying in his chapter, is to make these lists on things you like and understand and Reid wants us to ask ourselves questions about importance and its reliability to ourselves to help us develop these sparks that don’t come very naturally. To Spark a Spark doesn’t have to be difficult when we expand our knowledge on things we think.