"The Power of Words in Wartime"

1. Words have so much power and influence on the mind because we associate certain words with certain actions. We change the words we use during war because we have to change our mind set and seperate our thoughts from what we are actually accomplishing. Words begin to mentally condition us to believe or to make a task easier, such as killing which Talkoff mentions several times.

2. Lakoff put a lot of emphasis on usage of language in war, but I think that it really does have an impact on the mind set. It is not easy to kill someone when you have been told all your life not to, so you have to use alternative options in words that can change the way you see the task, and just accomplish it. Now, there are a lot of repercutions that follow this because once you have altered the mind set, it is hard to re-associate certain things as you would have before.

3.The essay is a little bit of both. She is taking a current topic and using it to demonstrate the use of language. It is really unique that she is using this issue because it is perfect in showing language we may have not thought about.

4. Lakoff is exaggerating in this aspect, because she is blaming language for the situation that happened. Now, Im saying exaggerating becuase it does hold some truth in the whole process of mental conditioning. I think the words had an impact on the "atrocity", but I dont think it was the initial motive.

5.I think it is implied that other countries would do the same as us. She even discusses an Austrian ethologist which makes me think that she is also connecting with other countries as well. She could have expanded on the discussion of other languages but I dont think that would have changed the impact of styl of her essay.