Mince no words
A few days ago, I landed in the midst of a debate about the use of the word "texting." A friend of mine, quite a linguistic purist, was furious that the world has gone mad and converted the noun "text" into a verb. (I was so tempted to describe the conversion of the noun into a verb by coining the term "verbalize," but decided not to risk it.) So, people now say "Can you text me?" instead of "Can you send me a text message?"
I myself have no problems with the evolution of this particular word. In fact, I understand that in
Where I have a problem is this other word, 'chop-chop'. Now chop is undoubtedly a verb, and needless to say, it's in English. Recently, as a result of that unique Filipino culture of gangsters apprehending innocent females and dismembering them, and scattering various body parts across the country, a new term was coined - "chop-chop."
As used, this new word denoted the several times that a person took swings at various body parts so as to result in a fractured corpse. Which isn't that far from the original meaning, I think. But anyway, where I'm a bit upset is that I was watching this irritating lady doing the local evening news one time, when she suddenly announced that a body subject to 'chop-chopping' had been found. What was notable about this was, she was speaking in Filipino!
In fact, she said "chi-nop-chop", which is an acceptable butchering of the English language, by local standards. Now, considering that everybody above 12 can understand what she meant, can anybody seriously dispute that this is now an acceptable usage of the word "chop," originally relating only to slabs of mutton?
A law school classmate of mine, Wilfrido Garrido, Jr., has just gone and written a book. It's called "The Trail of the Chop-chop Lady of Makati," and he asked me, from one writer to another (that's what he said, not me!) to write a review about the book in this column. Flattered beyond description, I readily agreed.
Unfortunately, due to my hectic schedule of shopping and perusing fashion magazines (which never cease to churn out from the gutter mill), I haven't had the time to actually sit down and read it. The tragedy is, the book's already available not just in Power Books, but also, I am informed, in Amazon.com!
So here I am, sent a free copy of the book with a very sweet dedication from graft-buster Garrido (whom we fondly called "Mr. G" in law school), but having had no time to sit down and absorb it. Fortunately, another classmate did have the luxury to read it and she posted a glowing review in our Yahoo group. Which basically let me off the hook, since all I have to do not is lift it verbatim and post it here.
This is what she said (subject to some editing):
"Mr. G can write a THRILLER. The words were so descriptive and oftentimes funny that you can actually feel and experience the scene. I don't know whether it is just my creative mind working but it was like seeing the words jump out of the book into the movie screen, literally for me.
I like thrillers kasi so I was really looking for the clues in every scene, so at some point the identity of the killer seemed to be a give away, but then again only to be confused later when succeeding scenes that are not seemingly related are juxtaposed.
Some parts of the book, Mr. G exceeded himself and just had to vent his wrath over the traffic mess, corruption, the police, the mighty oligarchs (in Manila). With wit and humor, he weaved words to show his dismay (or is it disdain) of Makati, or the things it represents.
Mr. G, is the book your showcase of your sentiments on the oligarchic system controlling every aspect of Philippine society? The book was likewise a strong statement on the state of corruption in the Philippines.
Next novel please, Mr. G. I had fun reading it."
With a review like that, it's a veritable sin for me not to pick up the book. Time to order your copies from Amazon! (Oh, and by the way, the point I wanted to make was, Mr. G just 'adjectivized' "chop").
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