Friday, July 05, 2013

THE TROUBLE WITH BATTOLOGERS

The Superior Person's Book of Words by Peter Bowler defines 'Battology' as "the continual reiteration of the same words or phrases in speech or in writing. A battologer is one who battologizes. One of those words whose lack of  wider currency seems undeserved and puzzling in the light of its wide potential for application to television commercials, sales pitches by car and encyclopedia vendors, spouse's homilies, etc." Time and again, we hear the President's mouthpieces a.k.a. battologers come to his defense. That's expected and could be tolerated up to a certain extent, as long as the speech does not turn into a fantastic fib. But what if the latter's own quickly defends his sister and hints of her immunity from a lawsuit? Isn't that stretching it a bit too far? But it doesn't end there.

Hence, recently we have witnessed that Noynoy Aquino speaks for Malaysia. Mar Roxas speaks for Ayala. Abigail Valte speaks for Ballsy. Edwin Lacierda speaks to the dead. Miriam Defensor-Santiago speaks to herself (and she answers back).

We're all copulated!