Some of the KK arguments contain so many of the classic Rhetorical fallacies as to defy simple classification. Indeed, they warrant a new umbrella category of their very own. Figuratively, they are so twisted as to resemble a boar's penis (which is helical at its distal end). This 'porkscrew' use of multiple fallacies has thus been dubbed the Argumentum ad Membrum Porkeri or, in Cornish, Dathel Tosen an Torgh.
Those who make puerile double entendres between 'fallacies' and 'phallus seize' will be sternly rebuffed, and told to get a grip on themselves!
- - - - - - -
Even a cursory glance through the current arguments being put forward by the Kemynistas will show that they're seriously worried by the prospect of having KK independently scrutinised as part of the 'Single Written Form' discussions that are currently underway. They quite fail to realise that manifesting such fear merely suggests to the cynical that they have grounds for fear, and that they know there are visible and serious defects in their self-styled 'Perfect' Cornish.
The latest 'outrage' to spin them into a hissy fit is their failure to pack the Language Working Group committee with 100% KKist members. To make matters 'worse', they then failed to add further 'expert' members to the Group (who would be completely objective, despite being known KK activists).
In fact, they're so ticked off that their normally abysmal standard of debate has sunk even lower. Many of their techniques of flawed argument may be found with fetchingly Latin names on Wikipedia under the search term 'argumentum'. The Latin appears to be a relict from the bygone Trivium curriculum of the mediaeval Schoolmen, which comprised the Arts of Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric, and which formed the 'Threefold Way to Eloquence'.
The Kemynistas have repeatedly shown themselves to be deficient in every single one of the Arts of the Trivium (not to mention orthography, syntax and most other areas of linguistics) and indeed in Eloquence itself. It's clear that they add a whole new depth to the possiblilities of 'Triviality', managing to be both 'trivial' in the modern sense and 'non-trivial' in the older sense of the word, both at the same time!
In a recent series of posts to CornishOrthography about the 'Single Written Form', tendentiously entitled 'Government Cornish', Tim Saunders so far surpassed his previous nadir of unreasoned debate, that the present author felt compelled to comment (post #4060):
"… Does Tim himself believe all these untruths, half-truths and moonshine
that he peddles? -- I wouldn't pretend to know. But what I do know is
that his arguments are as crooked as a pig's prick, and that the
classic trap for a propagandist is to end up believing his/her own lies."
In fact, he manages to cram so many of the 'argumentum ad' fallacies into each of these posts that there was evident need to coin in his honour a new, all-encompassing fallacy name. This 'porkscrew' style of fallacious argument
"… has now been dubbed in Tim's … favoured (though ill-understood) Latin as the Argumentum ad Membrum Porkeri, or cornicé 'Dathel Tosen an Torgh'."
We note in passing the happy congruence of this coinage with the celebrated Cockney rhyming slang term for a lie: a 'porky', or 'porky pie', sometimes heard in the phrase, 'to tell a wee porky'. Perhaps rhyming slang has room for a '*porky prick' to denote a 'lying trick'.
No comments:
Post a Comment