Saturday, April 19, 2008

Blogging-linguistic connection?!

I had the chance to chat with Shirley this afternoon and she invited me to become a Multiply contact. I checked her account and instantly commended her for her spatial abilities in keeping her account filled with…vast space.

As I was “affirming” her extraordinary talents, she was looking into my blog entries.

For the first time, I felt awkward knowing that someone ogles at my blog. I suspect that perhaps, she saw a good venue to retaliate by picking up on my grammar. Shirley teaches writing in one of the world class schools in the country, and she has a PhD in Applied Linguistics to boot!

But no, I don’t mind being corrected with my grammar since I am no longer an English teacher. I am a budding religious, a Salesian novice. And really, it’s okay. Really.

Kidding aside, Shirley knows me (by the way, she's that posing in silhouette, it's my best photo of her!). And my way with words will not stand any chance to sugar coat ideas. And although we have not talked as much when I returned to the seminary, we still update each other once in a while. In fact, I had a good 30-minute talk with her over a month ago and the feeling was exhilarating. For me, talking with good friends is therapeutic. It never fails to lift up my spirit and makes me feel better. Yeah, that’s how shallow I am.

Over some disquieting minutes of waiting for her response, she voiced out her fascination about my…uhum…writing style. She told me that she chose syntax (one of the branches of linguistics that deals with grammar) because she’s not into writing.

She hinted a possibility of studying it. The interface of word choice and syntax may affect the meaning of the text, she told me. It has something to do about stylistics approach. My interest was picked with such a proposal. My blog, a subject of a linguistic study? But of course…by all means!

I use words (and at times, photos!) when I write blog entries. But beyond the writer in me is a soul trying to reach out to individuals who are dear to me.

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