'You're Not Like Other' Hate Speech

Abstract

Traditional semantic and pragmatic accounts of hate speech do not account for the simultaneity of certain phrases being both complimentary and incredibly offensive. My account seeks to operationalize perlocutionary-based theories of hate speech in terms of cognitive linguistics, through mental spaces theory and common ground. My thesis concerns some curious cases which show how using intention alone as a basis for interpreting the semantics and pragmatics of speech fails to account for certain speech acts which are simultaneously complimentary and offensive. My analysis shall focus on the cognitive linguistic aspects of the construction you're not like other; where X is a sociological category (Black people, Women, Muslims, etc.). This analysis will show that previous methods of semantically and pragmatically analyzing hate speech are inadequate in capturing the full contextual features and mental states of the interlocutors, and that my interpretation is more representative of reality.