Think before you speak

In what language do you think? english? pinoy? or the vernacular? steven pinker, author of "the language instinct" says no to any of these choices. i've been reading this fascinating book on language and how it works for us. i've always thought the reason it's hard to translate pinoy to english is because i "think in pinoy". but pinker says it's really just my imagination. I confuse thinking with words. and well, as i come to THINK about it, he may be right. Common sense, yah? everyone has the capacity for it. from the people of tacurong to the cosmopolitan citizens of paris. we all have thoughts and steven pinker dares to claim that the "language" we think in is more like "universal" language he calls "mentalese."

so thought and language are two distinct, separate faculties. the next thing he proposes is that our capacity for language is an instinct. not much different from a hen's urge to incubate her eggs. and this instinct begins to be at its most active during the first three years of our lives onward to about six or seven? we normally enter into what he calls a "grammar explosion"-- where we, almost automatically learn the grammatical structures of our mother tongue. we get a sense of what's understandable and what's incomprehensible, what for Hamlet would be just a torrent of "words, words, words" and what would have the "correct" arrangement of these otherwise meaningless words. this window of opportunity for language closes as we grow older. and that, he says, explains why adults have a more difficult time learning a new language.

so kung ganun pala, is growing up learning two languages at the same time really not a problem, after all? and so maybe that explains why i tend to use one language in a situation and use the other language in another context. for example, when I'm feeling contentious, i tend to use english more than pinoy. I feel that english can more accurately express the subtle differences of my arguments or tends to be more precise in pointing out one detail in my rebuttal. But if, during that same debate, things get heated up and, if my statements become more personal, then pinoy words tend to insert themselves into the fray. or say, i'm waxing romantic, i tend to use pinoy "archaisms" or kapag i'm in a creative mood and start writing a poem, my pinoy vocabulary comes to the fore like a shower of words i thought i could never use. but when i read a piece, not just my own, when i begin to to read "critically," english comes in handy. the switch is almost automatic for me.

Pero siyempre may mga overlaps iyan. sometimes I have had to write formal pieces in Pinoy. i catch myself reaching for an English-Pilipino dictionary to aim at expressing myself more precisely. and when I see all the possible words in the entry, i select the best pinoy word according to... to what... according to context and most importantly, according to feel. for instance when i want to use the word "provocative"-- do i mean nanunulsol? or nangyayamot? or nanghahamon? or nanggagalit? in this way, i achieve precision in my pinoy by going through english as my prism.

E, baka nga tama si steven pinker. I think in "mentalese" and dahil I'm isang Filipino na may history ng pananakop ng Americans, I can use either wika as it suits me. Pero nga naman, mahirap kung pagsasabayin. pero bakit naman hindi? the jamaicans speak english in a particular way, and rastafari has reflected this language as a fitting medium for their ideology, di ba? or why can't we, to use steven pinker's term, "creolize" our english-pinoy? baka naman doon papunta ang jejemon, di kaya? so what looks like a bad development for language, may actually be something good in the long run. baka ang kailangan lang ng jejemon ay... isang political philosophy deep enough to enthuse the next crop of intellectuals/hippies/activists of this bayan kong sawi.

Ambot, wa ko know. Bahala na si batman.