he said, she said.

suskuday!

one student came to me asking something about the error in the message posted on the campus. she said "sir, is there anything wrong with the sentence?" i said " the 's" she said "why?" i said "according to the "elements of style" you don't place 's to non-living objects. she said "is that so, sir?" i said "yah".

one moment of silence.

abruptly she raised the argument that "yah" should not be used because according to her it is not a word. "yes" should be in place of the word i used.

pause.

i found myself discussing language.

for us to use and master a language, first we must know what is language: a. it is the use of written symbols or vocal sounds in order to communicate or get the meaning across, b. its basic unit is sound and, therefore one must master the meaning of those sounds.

clear.

no question.

now i've added the definition of language according to Gemino H. Abad in his book, "In Ordinary Time". "Language is not words, kaibigan,/ nor the many screeching worlds it produce, language is what created those worlds and the effect are the words.

crossed brows.

endless queries.

so my lunch break was dedicated to explaining language to students not mine. i took the word "love" i've asked them what is the meaning of love?

ample definitions.

now the question i've raised is, "how do you feel if you're feeling the word "love", if you're in love?

sharing siesta.

"love is not the affection you feel for someone", i told them. love is just a word, what is important is how we conceive that word and perception differs from one and the other.

"words are only there to represent the ideas, the feelings (anger, hope, despair, love, pity, etc.) since they are only representatives, we, the speaker, must choose the best word in order for us to get the meaning across." in this manner, it is not the words that created the meaning, but the feeling that created the meaning and the words."

so in my "yah" case, i used "yah" instead of "yes" or whatever other word, because i found it suitable to take the place of what i am feeling of the moment of speaking.

are we clear?

yes.

get it?

"yah"