Abstract

 The topic of the present article concerns verbal aggression and focusses on the verbal expression of the emotional mind; specifically, the expression of negative feelings, emotions and attitudes. Since computer-mediated communication is widely used to shape and reshape public opinion, the analysis of hate speech on the material of internet discourse may shed light on the manipulative communicative tactics that are used in online media and social networking sites to spread hostility and negativity globally. Hence, the examination of the language strategies and tactics that are used to formulate hate speech becomes essential in communicatively oriented linguistic studies.
 
 
 The present article provides a comparative analysis of manifestations of hate speech and euphemisms in Armenian and British online media outlets and social sites targeted towards people's sexual orientation. The aim of the paper is to show the close connection between hate speech and culture. The research, which embarks on two basically different cultures – British and Armenian – is carried out within the framework of cross-cultural pragmatics and discourse analysis. A qualitative research method is applied to analyse samples of hate speech. Social sites and online media outlets were searched through search engines, using certain keywords (LGBT, sexual minorities, etc.). For the purpose of the study, language resources from English and Armenian – words, expressions, constructions, speech acts expressing hostile attitudes towards sexual orientation – have been picked out and analysed.
Highlights
Communication, both verbal and non-verbal, is established to express what language users think and feel
This can be proved by the fact that recently, new terms naming the expression of verbal aggression, especially that unleashed via the internet, have been coined, such as trolling, flaming, cyber-bullying and hate speech
Cross-cultural pragmatic analysis of hate speech proves that due to some semantic–pragmatic features of the online-communication context, with its specific relationship between sender and receiver, the expression of language abuse has changed in terms of politeness and facesaving acts
Summary
Communication, both verbal and non-verbal, is established to express what language users think and feel. The research embarks on two basically different cultures – British and Armenian – by comparing Armenian texts from Armenia with English texts from Great Britain. It aims to study how the language strategy of veiling negativity through euphemistic expressions is being replaced by overt expressions of hostile attitudes and negative feelings in British and Armenian cultures. The analysis is based on the assumption that as a result of certain worldwide geopolitical, cultural and technological transformations in the social life of the human community, the negative emotional mind is becoming more and more active, exteriorising a great deal of criticism, hatefulness, malice and aversion overtly via speech (Fink, 1968). Several Armenian and English social sites (Facebook and Twitter) and online periodicals (the following newspaper websites: 168.am, aravot.am, hraparak.am, theguardian.com, stonewall.org and stonewallscotland.org) were selected for monitoring
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