World Language for Equal Dignity (WLED)

Francisco Gomes de Matos, Director and Coordinator
An Applied Peace Linguist, Recife, Brazil, E-mail fcgm@hotlink.com.br, currently also a Consultant to Associação Brasil América, a Binational Center

HumanDHS is primarily grounded in academic work. We are independent of any religious or political agenda. However, we wish to bring academic work into "real life." Our research focuses on topics such as dignity (with humiliation as its violation), or, more precisely, on respect for equal dignity for all human beings in the world. This is not only our research topic, but also our core value, in line with Article 1 of the Human Rights Declaration that states that every human being is born with equal dignity (that ought not be humiliated). We agree with Professor Shibley Telhami, who advocates the building of bridges from academia as follows, "I have always believed that good scholarship can be relevant and consequential for public policy. It is possible to affect public policy without being an advocate; to be passionate about peace without losing analytical rigor; to be moved by what is just while conceding that no one has a monopoly on justice." We would like to add that we believe that good scholarship can be relevant and consequential not only for public policy, but for raising awareness in general.

Our World Language for Equal Dignity (WLED) project aims at focusing on linguistic habits that can help (or undermine) dignity, even though we might not always be aware of it. Please see some texts further down that highlight different aspects of this issue. The notion of human rights and its ideal of equal dignity for all call for attention to the details of the language we use, as a task within the quest for equal dignity for all.

Creating a Paradigm for Peace
Francisco Gomes de Matos

Dear Evelin,
In my workshops on Communicative Peace, I challenge participants to create a PARADIGM FOR PEACE, that is, a list of verbs which can fill the first position in the phrase ACT FOR PEACE.

The challenge can be enhanced, if you say USE THE FIRST VERB THAT COMES TO MIND, THEN WRITE IT DOWN. ON COMPLETION OF THE ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED PARADIGM, EXCHANGE YOUR LISTS WITH OTHER PERSONS AND DISCUSS HOW HUMANIZINGLY MEANINGFUL VERB CHOICES CAN BE AND WHY.

Here is a typical PARADIGM, from one of such cognitively-linguistically challenging practices:

FOR P E A C E

A - attract
B - build
C - create
D- dignify
E- empathize
F - feed
G - group
H - humanize
I - interact
J- joy
K - kindle
L - Lead
M - mobilize
N- nucleate
O- opt
P - reconcile
Q - quest
R - ally
S- speak
T - teach
U - unite
V - vitalize
W- work
Y - yield

Additionally, participants can be asked to creactivate one example of Paradigm for the letters x and z. The dual goal of this Peace-focused wordplay is to show that Peace is paradigmatic (exemplary) and that we can enhance Communicative Peace by probing its phraseology, through paradigms such as the one illustrated above.

Wonder if members of our group have ever thought of this communicative dimension?

Liven up for Peace!
Francisco Gomes de Matos, Recife, Brazil
 

The Vocabulary of Indignity: A Mnemonic Checklist
Francisco Gomes de Matos

Dear Evelin,
Our Research Group homepage is inspiringly titled Human Dignity and Humiliation. What happens if we change the word order and create this phrase: Humiliation of Human Dignity? As an applied peace linguist, I would reply: such combination of words could mean "humiliating treatment", usually conveyed/represented by nouns. Interestingly, such nouns typically begin with the prefix DIS, which has a negative, reversive communicative force. If colleagues ever decide to probe the language of Indignity, an easy way to start is to compile a list of such nouns in DIS. In my workshops on Communicative Peace (for teachers of English) I challenge participants to produce the mnemonically-activated "list of nouns to be avoided" and to discuss ways to change each item into its positive, dignified meaning. Thus, on suggesting that DIScord be added to the list, a positive opposite would be given: Accord.

Before providing a sample of such vocabulary of indignity, I'd like to share a bit of usage information: in American English slang, DIS is used with the meaning of "to show disrespect for "to belittle" (cf. Random House Webster's College Dictionary, 1997, p.372) Such Americanism made its written debut in 1980, and, as can be easily inferred, it is the initial syllable taken from such verbs as disrespect, disparage. Now, here is the checklist. What to do with it? One creative possibility is to provide the corresponding phraseology that can go with the noun. What would language users typically say when there isdiscourtesy, for instance? Research on the phraseology of both dignity and indignity would be most revealing, both intra and interculturally.

List of Nouns in DIS (would you agree with all inclusions? Why (not)?

Disagreement
Discomfort
Disapproval
Discord
Disconnection
Discouragement
Discourtesy
Disgrace
Dishonor
Disharmony
Disorder
Disintegration
Disorganization
Disparagement
Displeasure
Disregard
Distrust
Disunion /Disunity

Before closing, let me share two quotations. One by the Italian playwright Luigi Pirandelo, in his play "Six characters in search of an author, Act 1, 1921)

"Each of us, face to face with other persons, is clothed with some sort of dignity, but we know only too well all the unspeakable things that go in the heart" (cf. Words on Words. Quotations about language and languages, edited by David Crystal and Hilary Crystal, Penguin Books, 2000, p.)

How about applying such provocative thinking to our uses of languages for dignity?

Another quote is from the Greek playwright Aristophanes, who, by the way, wrote a play named PEACE. In his play The Frogs (translated by D. Barrett), two Greek playwrights - Euripedes and Aeschylus – engage in a lively interaction. The latter says: "Noble themes and noble sentiments must be couched in suitably dignified language." (My source: Words on Words. Quotations about Language and Languages, compiled by David Crystal and Hilary Crystal, Penguin Books, 2000, p. 147).

Cogently, peace educators have been reminding us that it is society's responsibility to help create conditions for human beings to be educated for dignity. In such spirit, applied peace linguists would add that "communicative dignity" is one of the requirements for "communicative peace" (to know more about that coinage, google the term) and that part of our challenge as researchers centered on dignity and humiliation studies is to documents, analyze both dignified and undignified uses of languages and the effects of such choices on people, groups, communities. It is largely through our vocabulary that we can humanize or dehumanize our communicative life, so may I ask you to apply this mnemonically-construed principle: Let's dignify our daily dialogue/discourse.

Francisco Gomes de Matos
Federal University of Pernambuco and Associação Brasil América, Recife, Brazil

Prepositions for PEACE
Francisco Gomes de Matos

Peace talks
in gentle words
on firm beliefs
through kind actions
with a planetary spirit

Peace talks
among millions of people
without voices due to conflict
in countries fraught with war
under dehumanizing destruction

Peace talks
for dignity and solidarity
by means of appeals and pleas
against all forms of humiliation
by promoting humanization

Please, PEACE talk
as a committed humanizer
about the suffering, the poor
with a universal resolve
to problems socially solve

Please, PEACE talk
into all hearts and souls
for brave new voices
of both young and old
to make us peacefully bold

Please, PEACE talk with citizens everywhere
like a harmonious choir
in search of peace patriotism
in languages spoken,written and sign
to make YOU theirs, ours, and mine.

Prepositions for PEACE, by
Francisco Gomes de Matos,
an applied peace linguist from Recife, Brazil, March 4, 2005.
 

HumanKIND Please Be KIND (Adjectives for Peace)
Francisco Gomes de Matos

Oh,HUMANKIND please be kind
Avoid being quarrelsome
Refrain from being malevolent
Let´s learn to be benevolent

Oh,HUMANKIND, please be kind
Avoid being insulting
Refrain from being inconsiderate
Let´s learn to be considerate

Oh, HUMANKIND, please be kind
Avoid being rude
Refrain from being impolite
Let´s learn to be polite

Oh,HUMANKIND, please be kind
Avoid being selfish
Refrain from being unsympathetic
Let´s learn to be sympathetic

Oh, HUMANKIND, please be kind
Avoid being self-centered
Refrain from being uncooperative
Let´s learn to be cooperative

Oh, HUMANKIND, please be kind
Avoid being violent
Refrain from being destructive
Let´s learn to be constructive

Oh,HUMANKIND, please be kind
Avoid being humiliating
Refrain from being dehumanizing
Let´s learn to be humanizing

Oh, HUMANKIND, please be kind
Avoid being offensive

Refrain from being disrespectful
Let´s learn to be respectful

Oh,HUMANKIND, please be kind
Avoid being thoughtless
Refrain from being divisive
Let´s learn to be cohesive

Oh, HUMANKIND, please be KIND
Avoid being belligerent
Refrain from being hateful
Let's be PEACEFUL.

To Beslan Children - The World Misses You
Francisco Gomes de Matos

~~~
When you died
because of a war
Human dignity cried:
"Don't close my door!"
~~~
When you were killed
in acts of violence
Human Rights denounced:
"Where's the protection of innocence?"
~~~
When you were sacrificed
in abominable terrorism
Planetary citizens proclaimed:
"Let's create a new humanism"
~~~
Where peace and justice prevail
where differences disappear
where human beings sail
all waters without fear
~~~
where memories of you
will show us a new way
which will change history
your heroism is here to stay.

On September 5, 2004, by Francisco Gomes de Matos

~~~

Please see here also Francisco's poem on Peace Patriotism.