Conjugating for Peace

Francisco Gomes de Matos, Brazil

Francisco Gomes de Matos, an applied peace linguist from Recife, Brazil. At present he works at Brazil-America Association. E-mail: fcgm@hotlink.com.br

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Introduction
Conjugating for Peace
Reference

Introduction

Conjugating is the practice of presenting the inflected forms of a verb. In English, it has to do with tense formation . In materials for learners of English as a second language, the following are considered TENSES: Present simple, Present progressive or Present continuous, Present perfect, Past simple, Past perfect, Past perfect progressive, Future tense, Future perfect, Conditional tense(hypothetical past) etc. In the poetic-statements to follow, that terminology will be used. Tense forms will be CAPITALIZED. Brief contextualization will be provided, for communicative realism. Readers are invited to provide other examples of CONJUGATION FOR PEACE.

I hope the examples given will encourage/challenge colleagues to create other ways of integrating Peaceful Communication and Verb Conjugation in English and other languages. Bedsides making memorable messages ,learners engaged in such humanizing practice can further diversify their vocabulary, especially of those verbs which mirror communicatively aggressive/acts ( additional examples: humiliate, ridicule, scorn, threaten) to be avoided and if possible eliminated from everyday social interaction.

In short, both syntactically, semantically, and humanistically the suggested activity can pay off many dividends for Communicative Peace.

Conjugating for Peace

Present simple

AM I peaceful, when insulted ?
ARE you peaceful, when intimidated?
IS s/he peaceful, when antagonized ?
ARE we/you/they peaceful, when criticized ?

Present progressive

When AM I BEING peaceful ?
When ARE you BEING peaceful ?
When IS s/he BEING peaceful ?
When ARE we/you/they BEING peaceful ?

Present perfect

HAVE I BEEN a peaceable person ?
HAVE you BEEN a peaceloving person ?
HAS s/he BEEN a peacebuilding person ?
HAVE we/you/they BEEN peacepromoting persons ?

Past Simple

When WAS I peaceful ?
When WERE you peaceful ?
When WAS s/he peaceful ?
When WERE we/you/they peaceful ?

Past Perfect

HAD I BEEN peaceful, what good would that do ?
HAD YOU BEEN peaceful, what change would that make ?
HAD S/HE BEEN peaceful, what good would that do ?
HAD we/you/they BEEN peaceful, what change would that make ?

Future

When WILL I BE a peaceful person everywhere ?
When WILL you BE a peaceful person in difficult circumstances?
When WILL s/he BE a peaceful person at home, at work, at school?
When WILL we/you/they BE peaceful persons in trying experiences?

Hypothetical past (conditional)

If I communicated peacefully, the disagreement would have ended(or would end ?)
If you communicated peacefully, the disrespect would have ended
If s/he communicated peacefully, the dispute would have ended
If we/you/they communicated peacefully, the distrust would have ended

Concluding remarks

If all of us practice and probe this type of Conjugation
And power it with humanizing feelings from our heart and soul
People will act as a cooperative, harmonizing congregation
And PEACE will become a permanent, sustained Life-supporting goal

Reference

Leech, Geoffrey, A Glossary of English Grammar, Edinburgh University Press, 2006

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