Linguistic Features of Multilingual Hate Speech in the Online “Bardagulan”

Abstract

"Bardagulan" is the slang used in the Philippines to describe an online dispute wherein Filipino netizens trade hate speech. The term was derived from the Tagalog word "Bardagul" which means conflict and is now employed to denote differing viewpoints (Yaneza, 2022). During the 2022 Presidential Election, a variety of hate speech was heard and seen, prompting the researcher to determine the linguistic characteristics of hate speech on Philippine social media. To demonstrate the complexity of hate speech in the Philippines, the researcher devised a research question centered on various linguistic features such as form, type, social aggression, impoliteness strategies, and the structure of hate speech to improve the understanding of how hate speech functions in actual online social discourse. It is crucial that all social media users possess knowledge regarding the linguistic features that distinguish hate speech, so that they may effectively report unpleasant remarks posted online. Multimodality and content analysis were also utilized to analyze 190 specimens of hate speech since the researcher considers hate speech as a multimodal phenomenon. This study suggests that the distinctive linguistic characteristics of multilingual "Bardagulan" hate speech contribute to the challenges encountered in eradicating hatred within the realm of Philippine social media. It was found that social media users in the Philippines employ grammatical and linguistic innovations to conceal profanity and circumvent digital content censorship. Moreover, the primary results indicate that behavior of Filipino internet users displayed via impoliteness in words, images, and emojis promote the proliferation of hate speech since they have a propensity to engage in confrontational discourse, with an aim to persuade the audience and to defend their own points of view.