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Got Invective?

by Rhetorix - November 30, 2002

February 1, 2002

Those of you who rely on Usenet for your supply of ungrammatical invective now can tap two new sources: KCNA and Green Korea United.

KCNA is the Korean Central News Agency, the official news provider of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (a.k.a. North Korea.)

Green Korea is a non-governmental agency that "... work[s] positively and creatively to provide support to other civic and environmental organizations and civil society by conducting independent environmental impact assessments and researches with helps from many outside experts, giving advice on environmental curriculum development, lecturing, participating in discussions and forums, developing and implementing eco-village models, distributing our publications and studies." (Link)

Both are bounteous sources of invective and rhetoric. From KCNA: 28 December, 2002:

U.S. troops condemned for polluting environment

Pyongyang, December 28 (KCNA) -- A spokesman of the DPRK Ministry of Land and Environment Preservation released a statement today, condemning the U.S. imperialist aggression forces for damaging the environment in South Korea. According to data, the U.S. troops stationed in South Korea damaged over 25,000 pyong of forests in Phaju city, Kyonggi Province in October last year and left graffiti on rocks of four mountains around Seoul from 1998.

At least 430,000 pyong of land of Inchon, which had been a U.S. military base, has not yet been restored 30 years after, remaining an oil-stained land.

The statement says:

Behaving themselves as a dominator of South Korea, the U.S. aggressors have indiscriminately damaged the natural resources, estate of the Korean nation, and are now scheming to unleash a war on the Korean Peninsula under the pretext of the "nuclear issue" and turn Korea into a barren land, a land of nuclear holocaust.

The U.S. aggressors are going to completely damage the land of the Korean nation. It clearly shows that they are running amuck to exterminate the Korean nation.

All the Koreans in the north and the south and overseas should pool their efforts to defend their lovely land to the last and wage a more vigorous anti-U.S. struggle to drive the U.S. Forces, the root cause of aggression, plunder, murder and damage, out of South Korea.

(Copyright © 2002 KOREA NEWS SERVICE(KNS) All Rights Reserved. )

Rhetoricians are not kind to those who misuse language, even in ignorance, so there are many rhetorical terms for grammatical errors.

Amphibologia, an ambivalence of grammatical structure either intentional or inadvertent, usually by mispunctuation, is seen in the sentence "A spokesman of the DPRK Ministry of Land and Environment Preservation released a statement today, condemning the U.S. imperialist aggression forces for damaging the environment in South Korea. " (misplaced comma)

Synchisis, a confusion in the word order of a sentence, is represented by "At least 430,000 pyong of land of Inchon, which had been a U.S. military base, has not yet been restored 30 years after, remaining an oil-stained land." This also is alleotheta/enallage, the substitution of a case, person, gender, number, tense, mood, or part of speech for another.

Catachresis, the use of farfetched metaphor, describes "... U.S. Forces, the root cause of aggression, plunder, murder and damage...."

There also is cacozelia -- affected, high-flown speech used to appear learned -- in the clause "Behaving themselves as a dominator of South Korea...." (This is the same error committed by those who have said "My colleagues and myself would like to welcome you...." This sounds formal and proper, but it is wrong, wrong, wrong. Use in its place "My colleagues and I welcome you..." and Rhetorix truly will feel welcomed.)

On the invective front, KCNA wields these rhetorical weapons:

Paraenesis, the warning of impending evil: "...the U.S. aggressors [will] turn Korea into a barren land, a land of nuclear holocaust."

Anaphora, the repetition of a word or phrase: "the U.S. imperialist aggression forces", "the U.S. aggressors" (used twice), and "the U.S. Forces, the root cause of aggression". This also is polyptoton, the repetition of words from the same root but with different endings. It can also be termed epimone and commoratio--rhetoricians love repetition and have many pet names for it.

When stripped of its invective and rhetorical devices, is this news story correct? According to the United Nations Environmental Programme, U.S. military bases in South Korea do cause pollution problems. A recent example of carelessness with dangerous chemicals is found on its site.

Green Korea is not as worried about U.S. military aggression; its members worry about ecological aggression. Finding the rhetorical devices in this article from the GKU site has been left as an exercise for the reader. Enjoy!

President Bush, does not deserve to live on our precious Earth: The USA's betrayal of the Kyoto Treaty is terrorism against Humanity and the Earth

Dismay is being expressed across the world at the decision by U.S. President George W. Bush to abandon the 1997 Kyoto Treaty aimed at staving off global warming. Kyoto Protocol was signed in December 1997; it called for a worldwide reduction of emissions of carbon-based gases by an average 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. It was a minimum effort to save the earth among nations from global warming.

GKU is strongly against Mr. Bush's foolish decision. Global warming is one of the largest disasters in the world. It destroys our precious planet. We think the USA's betrayal of the Kyoto Protocol is a terror against Human beings and Mother Earth.

The US has the highest per capita CO2 emissions in the world. People around the world already faced with the first signs of climate change, suffering from floods and hurricanes, expect USA to be in the forefront of tackling climate change.

If President Bush fail to change the decision to kill the Kyoto treaty, future generations will not forgive him. It means President Bush, does not deserve to live on our precious Earth.

The US must join the world in tackling climate change.

(http://www.greenkorea.org/english/gkreport/gkreport06.htm Although there is no notice on the site, copyright is held by Green Korea United)

W.C. Green is from good Republican stock--her grandmother used to render them down for soup. Since she can't grow up to be Cato the Elder, she takes out her disappointment on modern orators.

©2002 The Tocquevillian Magazine