--- title: Soft words for hard things: war, the military and violence — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soft words for hard things: 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 means killing and destruction, and the people who start or run wars often do not want to say that plainl --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/) [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: war, the m… # Soft words for hard things: war, the military and violence Lesson 26 of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school: 24 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/26-war-and-the-military/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/0/) — War means killing and destruction, and the people who start or run wars often do not want to say that plainly. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/1/) — So armies and governments invent cool, technical-sounding words that hide the blood: an attack becomes "kinetic action", a retreat becomes a "tactical redeployment". - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/2/) — These words are mostly spin and hiding, not kindness: they make terrible things sound tidy, careful or even normal. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/3/) — A vivid example: "We degraded the enemy's capability" can mean "we bombed them and many people died". - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/4/) — When you hear calm, official words about fighting, ask: who got hurt, and what really happened? - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/5/) — "Pacification" means violently crushing the people of a place until they stop resisting. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/6/) — "Surgical strike" means a bombing that is claimed to hit only its target, though it often hits more. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/7/) — "Soft target" means unprotected people or places, often ordinary civilians (people who are not soldiers). - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/8/) — "Servicing the target" is US military jargon for bombing or killing the target. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/9/) — "Kinetic action" is US military jargon for a real attack with weapons that kills or destroys. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/10/) — "Degrade" in war talk means damage or destroy, often killing many people. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/11/) — "Losses" in war reports means soldiers killed. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/12/) — "Special military operation" is an official name used to avoid the word war. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/13/) — "Police action" is an old US official name for a war, such as the Korean War. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/14/) — "Conflict" is the official, softer word for a war. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/15/) — "Theatre of operations" is military jargon for a war zone. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/16/) — "Strategic withdrawal" is the official way to say an army retreated. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/17/) — "Tactical redeployment" is military jargon for a retreat. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/18/) — "Pre-emptive strike" means attacking first, before the enemy attacks you. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/19/) — "Ethnic cleansing" means driving out or killing a whole ethnic group (a people who share family roots, language or customs) from an area. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/20/) — "The final solution" was the name used by the Nazis (the National Socialists, who ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945) for their plan to murder all the Jews of Europe. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/21/) — "The deterrent" is the British official way to say nuclear weapons, the most destructive bombs ever made. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/22/) — "Battle fatigue" is an old name for the mental injury soldiers get from combat, now called trauma. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/26-war-and-the-military/23/) — "Private military contractor" is the official name for a hired soldier, a mercenary. - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin and war, the military and violence](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: crime, prison and the police](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/27-crime-prison-and-police/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)