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  • Impoliteness and hate speech - Accepted

    Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Pragmatics. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Pragmatics, 179, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2021.04.019

    Accepted author manuscript, 687 KB, PDF document

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Impoliteness and hate speech: Compare and contrast

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>31/07/2021
<mark>Journal</mark>Journal of Pragmatics
Number of pages7
Pages (from-to)4-11
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date25/05/21
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Both impoliteness and hate speech deal with offensive behaviour, yet it is also obvious that they are not exactly the same. This paper aims to tease out the similarities and differences. The first part concentrates on theorising by impoliteness and hate speech scholars, and thus takes a second-order perspective. It discusses the notions of face (largely overlooked in studies of hate speech), incitement (largely overlooked in studies of impoliteness) and intentionality (and related concepts) (examined in both studies of impoliteness and hate speech, though often without explicit connections to the other field). The second part of the paper, taking more of a first-order perspective, concentrates on the metapragmatics of the labels impoliteness and hate speech, which are approached through the terms impolite and hateful. Hateful, in comparison with impolite is characterised by more extreme behaviours, the emotion of hurt, and associations of prejudice. This part of the paper also provides a demonstration of what one can do with corpus-methods. Overall, it is hoped that this paper will promote theoretical synergies, and also greater awareness of the labels that are used.

Bibliographic note

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Pragmatics. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Pragmatics, 179, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2021.04.019