--- title: Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin and war, the military and violence — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin and war, the military and violence», a lesson of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: War and violence are the hardest things of all to talk about, so government --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/) / Soft words for hard things: politics a… # Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin and war, the military and violence Lesson 25 of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school: 25 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/0/) — War and violence are the hardest things of all to talk about, so governments, armies and criminals give them cold, technical names. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/1/) — A word like "neutralize" or "eliminate" sounds like tidying up, but in a soldier's or a spy's report it means to kill. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/2/) — Politics does the same with money and bad news: a statement that turned out false is suddenly called "inoperative". - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/3/) — These words put distance between people and what is really done, which is why it matters to know what they mean. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/4/) — When you hear them, translate them back: kill, prison, riot, propaganda, false. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/5/) — "Earmarks" means money set aside for a politician's pet local projects, favourite schemes in his own area (US). - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/6/) — "Soft money" means political donations (gifts of money) that dodge spending limits, getting round the rules on how much may be spent (US). - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/7/) — "Inoperative" said of an earlier statement means it was false (US). - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/8/) — "A good day to bury bad news" means a day when bad news will go unnoticed because something bigger is happening (UK). - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/9/) — "Civil unrest" means riots and protests. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/10/) — "Disturbances" means riots (UK). - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/11/) — "Emergency measures" can mean that normal rights and laws are suspended (stopped for a while). - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/12/) — "Messaging" means propaganda or spin. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/13/) — "Friendly fire" means an attack on one's own side by mistake. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/14/) — "Neutralize" in military talk means kill. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/15/) — "Take out" means kill or destroy. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/16/) — "Eliminate" means kill. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/17/) — "Liquidate" means kill, especially many people; dictators (rulers with total power who cannot be voted out) have used it. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/18/) — "Terminate with extreme prejudice" means assassinate, murder an important or chosen person on purpose (US spy slang). - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/19/) — "Wet work" means assassination (slang). - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/20/) — "Enhanced interrogation" means torture (US). - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/21/) — "Extraordinary rendition" means secretly moving a prisoner to another country for interrogation, long hard questioning (US). - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/22/) — "Black site" means a secret prison (US). - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/23/) — "Detainee" means a prisoner, often held without trial (never judged in a court). - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/24/) — "Enemy combatant" means a prisoner denied the rights of a prisoner of war, a captured soldier protected by the rules of war (US). - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/24-government-spin/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: war, the military and violence](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)