A newcomer in USC... Linguistics
Media
Part of The Carolinian
- Title
- A newcomer in USC... Linguistics
- Creator
- Verstraelen, Eugene
- Language
- English
- Year
- 1959
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- THE APPREHENSION... (Continued from page 17) letter, et? What is this? I would have broken the glass of the showwindow with my bare hands if the chinaman had not come out and invited me to get inside and see something and buy it. Do you have more of this inside? I asked him, and pointed at her. The chinaman scratched his head and grinned, and told me that they were not selling mannequins. She’s pretty, I said and went away hurriedly, leaving the chinaman astonished. The meanings of love are as sundry as the inhabitants of this world. People differ in their interpretations of love, because sameness is hard to attain. If it were otherwise, perhaps there would be no need for reason why, and there would be no tears and parting. There is a foolishness which some people in love usually commit upon having been rejected. Yes, the jilted called love just an infatuation or a dream. Infatuations must pass and dreams must die. Correct. But can we let love pass or die, by merely calling it an infatuation or a dream? “Forget her, Ted." I shook my head. “Okay, Ted. You love her. But she doesn’t love you. It won’t work.” “Doc, I still have my hope, or else I am now as good as dead. Why, is reciprocity a condition precedent to love? Doc, let me tell you this: My love is a sun; it will shine for both of us Forever.” But, of course, air-castles are called true and substantial only when they do not yet crumble. Now I need not be led to realize that my attempts at golden dreams have all been split upon a rock. I just have to stop acting like an April fool; the curtain has long fallen down, and the audience gone home. I have gone beyond the vertex of suffering where the pains must bite hard and be no more. What can one, who has deeply loved someone, do when that someone’s heart does not beat for him? To feel nothing or happy is to become foolish, but to go on crying forever is neither proper nor affording help, f tinned A NEWCOMER IN USC... by REV. EUGENE VERSTRAELEN, S.V.D. A NEW COURSE is offered in the Graduate School. It is perhaps useful to introduce this new subject to the Carolinians, because many might have a wrong, or at least an inaccurate, idea about linguistics and linguists. Who is a linguist? In lormer times he who knew many languages was called a linguist. In this sense the national hero Rizal was a linguist. But in recent years the word "linguist" has acquired a slightly different meaning. Especially since the marvellous development of the socalled structural linguistics, it is no longer necessary for a linguist to know many languages; a few languages will do, the attention being directed more to the essence of language and to its general principles and problems. For this study, knowledge of only a few languages is sufficient. Oftentimes somebody with the knowledge of only two or three languages may be more of a linguist than another who knows many. But why study linguistics, and especially Philippine linguistics? The reasons are many. When you study the modern structural linguistics, you will discover many fascinating and often revolutionary ideas. After such a study you will have a more thorough knowledge about the intricate mechanism of language, and about the general laws of its development and growth. It is very regrettable that here in the Philippines we have hardly any structural linguist. Prof. Cecilio Lopez of UP, himself a structural linguist, also complained about this fact. And there is indeed much reason for complaint. Many of our scholars work hard at writing articles about languages and dialects, but since they do not approach their subject systematically and scientifically, the results are poor and in many aspects even wrong. And, to quote Prof. Cecilio Lopez, "We, structural linguists, do not even react, simply because we would not be understood; in silence we regret their blunders." This is then the first reason: structural linguistics will give us quite new, fascinating and often revolutionary concepts about language. Further, very little is done scientifically about the Philippine languages. This makes the study of Philippine linguistics doubly interesting, even thrilling and exciting. We are still in a virginal field. With not too many difficulties we can do remarkable work, set up original theses, discover the dark history of languages. Once you master the general principles, it will not be too difficult to write a thesis that tells us something really new. In other fields of study much has already been explored, not much is left for original work. But in the field of Phillippine linguistics almost everything is new, each step we make leads to the discovery of something yet unknown. To study Philippine linguistics means to study only that which can further our knowledge about Philippine languages. From this viewpoint it would be practically useless to learn Russian. Useful are such languages as Old Javanese, Sanskrit, etc. Old Javanese is a language (this term is scientifically not correct, but it would take too long to explain here exactly what Old Javanese is) very closely related to Tagalog and Bisaya. It can give us better knowledge about the history of the Philippine languages. Besides, its study introduces us to a very interesting civilization of the Malay people in former times, and to the acculturation-problems of Indian and Indonesian cultures. We shall meet several great men of the Malayan race. To mention only one: Dharmakirti of Sumatra, the most learned man of his time (about 1150 AD). Even Atisa, the great professor of the Nalanda University in India, was for a long time his pupil. Also learned Chinese came to Indonesia to study there, v.g. Itsing in the seventh century. In many Old Javanese texts mention is made of customs and habits (Continued on page 36) JULY-AUGUST, 1959 Pa g e 23 Jitter ary featured The Plays Po s s ib l y , Dr. Carlos P. Romulo is the most widely known Filipino abroad. He has carried with distinction the name oi our country in the halls ol international councils and conferences. He is an international diplomat. Not only many articles of national and international import have come from his pen, but novels and plays also have caught his interest. Romulo wrote a few plays when he was a faculty member of the State University. These plays were not intended for publication but were written for the UP dramatic club. Since he abandoned playwriting before he perfected or mastered the technique, his plays are not ideal, as he himself has admitted. Romulo is represented by two dramas in this study — "The Hidden Symbol" and “Daughters for Sale." The first is a plcry in two acts with patriotism as the theme. A veteran of the Philippine Revolution and hacendero, Don Emilio is harassed by an unscrupulous but influential leader of the town who has come from nowhere. The stranger is aided by his son, a lawyer and labor leader, who is courting Don Emilio's daughter. As head of a society he has organized, "The Fighters of '96" this man derides Don Emilio for his apparent lack of patriotism. Furthermore, his son stirs up the mill laborers of Don Emilio's farm. As a consequence, the mill is burned down and the old man and his farm manager are accused of arson and consequently imprisoned. When he is bailed out, the manager gathers enough evidence to convict the real culprits, Don Felipe and his son. All's well that ends well. The manager also wins Don Emilio's A Newcomer in USC (Continued from, page 21) on Java. This may give us a better understanding about Philippine life in pre-Spanish times. We know from linguistic data that there was rather much contact between Indonesia and the Philippines. All this is mate(Continued from page 5) of Romulo daughter. In "Daughters for Sale," an old widower, Don Pelayo, is a “sabungero," meaning a cockpit addict, who would like to marry off his three daughters to rich husbands and thus have enough money to indulge in his vice. Amparo, his youngest daughter, entertains the same thought for her sisters. She manages to convince Don Juan, a wealthy landowner, that Maria, her man-hating sister, is in love with him. Flattered, the rich man comes to call on Maria, who insults him. The second sister, Rosario, is annoyed over her sweetheart's failure to answer her letters and in retaliation puts a husband-wanted advertisement in a newspaper. Meanwhile Amparo breaks off her engagement to an ambitious young man to "give him a shock that will awaken all his talent potentialities," in her own words. Two men answer Rosario's advertisement — the town barber and a Chinaman, both of whom are dismissed in no time. Don Juan again pays a visit and makes known his intentions of marriage to the father. Overcome by his sincerity, Maria at last gives in. On the other hand, Miguel, Rosario's lover, arrives and angrily confronts the woman with the advertisement. When reminded about the letters he did not answer, he explains they were all received in a batch just a few days before because there is no mail in the hacienda where he is working. And now he has come to take her with him, after they are properly married. Fortune does not forget to smile on Amparo too. Her lover also comes back to claim her after having landed a lucrative position as assistant manager. # rial which can throw much light not only on many dark spots of Philippine linguistics, but also on the vague and dim areas of Philippine history and civilization in preSpanish times. Sanskrit is not an Indonesian language. Nevertheless its study is very useful in many respects. For The CCA A (Continued from page 29) Right on the heels of the three tall men are old reliables Maximo "Republican" Pizarras, Julian "Killer" Macoy, Edgar Galdo, who made Chile veteran 'Emong' Bas look cheap in an exhibition game, Bobby "the befuddling feint" Reynes, Reynaldo dela Cruz the two-handed set shooter, Esmer Abejo, the fireball and ball hawk of the Warriors and the "little coach" of the team, Manuel Bas. To add able support there are jumpshot artist Ben Reyes, sentinel Gerard del Rosario and new acquisitions Patricio Palmares, a former Panther who's a whiz at jumpshots, Narciso Monceda, a Baby Jaguar in his prep days, and newcomer Tomas Aguirre. SPORTS SHORTS Fr. Lawrence Bunzel, SVD, is the newly-appointed Athletic Moderator. Being an "old hand" in San Carlos, Carolinian sports fans expect smooth sailing ahead. The CCAA prep circuit opened last Sunday, July 12 and the Senior Circuit followed suit, Sunday, July 19, 1959 with a loud bang.. . USC Sluggers, runner-up in last year's CBL, are still in the process of building up. Will be up next issue. . . On the soccer football front, it's so quiet that you can hear a pin drop. Wake up, fellows! J one thing, we have many loanwords from Sanskrit. This is the case with even the most common words. DALA in Bisaya and Tagalog, a very common word, is a Sanskrit loanword. The same is true of the Tagalog SALITA, etc. These loanwords can teach us very much about the development of Philippine languages. The study of Sanskrit also affords us the advantages mentioned before in connection with Old Javanese: we meet again another highly interesting civilization. And we can study the rather strong Indian influences here in the Philippines. The study of Old Javanese and Sanskrit, while interesting and useful, is, however, by no means necessary for research work in Philippine linguistics. With a thorough knowledge ol only structural linguistics we shall be able to make remarkable progress. A wide, virginal field lies open for exploration and new, fascinating discoveries. # Pa g e 36 THE CAROLINIAN