Exploring xenophobic and homophobic attitudes in Malta: Linking the perception of social practice with textual analysis
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Stavros Assimakopoulos
Stavros Assimakopoulos is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Malta. His research lies in the interface of linguistics, philosophy and cognitive psychology and focuses on inferential pragmatics and (critical) discourse analysis. He recently edited three volumes:
Pragmatics at its interfaces (Mouton de Gruyter, 2017),Current issues in intercultural pragmatics (John Benjamins, 2017; with Istvan Kecskes) andOnline hate speech in the European Union: A discourse-analytic perspective (Springer, 2017; with Fabienne H. Baider and Sharon Millar).
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Rebecca Vella Muskat
Rebecca Vella Muskat is a doctoral candidate in Linguistics at the University of Malta. Her main interests are in the interface of language and society. As such she uses linguistic methods, in particular critical discourse analysis, to examine ideological stances evident through linguistic structures. She currently works as a researcher on the C.O.N.T.A.C.T. project at the University of Malta and she is a project officer with a local NGO working in the area of human rights and equality.
Abstract
Reporting on research undertaken under the auspices of the C.O.N.T.A.C.T. project, the present paper investigates the roots of xenophobic and homophobic attitudes in Malta and the extent to which these can be pinpointed in the lexical choices made in discriminatory comments posted online in reaction to local news stories pertaining to migrants and members of the LGBTIQ community. Adopting Fairclough’s threedimensional framework (1995), we start off by presenting the values that underlie local discriminatory attitudes as social practice, as these were identified by the participants of four focus group interviews that were conducted at the University of Malta. In this respect, while xenophobia seems to be a far more pressing issue in Malta, homophobia, which is still also present, is taken to be predominantly triggered by deep-rooted religious beliefs and allegiance to heteronormative values. Then, when it comes to xenophobia, the main relevant trigger seems to be the perceived threat that the different collective background of a particular subset of migrants in Malta poses to the local culture. In an attempt to show that these values can also be discerned by examining even the most basic textual characteristics of a dataset comprising xenophobic and homophobic talk in the local context, we turn to identify them by looking at quantitative measures pertaining to lexical choice and metaphorical extension in the relevant parts of our corpus. In this way, we provide evidence for the fundamental – for Critical Discourse Analysis – claim that the textual analysis of a relevant dataset can indeed reveal the axiological framework that underlies the negative stance that the general population may have in relation to particular minorities, showcasing the relevance of discourse analytic methods for the broader understanding of discrimination and hate speech.
About the authors
Stavros Assimakopoulos is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Malta. His research lies in the interface of linguistics, philosophy and cognitive psychology and focuses on inferential pragmatics and (critical) discourse analysis. He recently edited three volumes: Pragmatics at its interfaces (Mouton de Gruyter, 2017), Current issues in intercultural pragmatics (John Benjamins, 2017; with Istvan Kecskes) and Online hate speech in the European Union: A discourse-analytic perspective (Springer, 2017; with Fabienne H. Baider and Sharon Millar).
Rebecca Vella Muskat is a doctoral candidate in Linguistics at the University of Malta. Her main interests are in the interface of language and society. As such she uses linguistic methods, in particular critical discourse analysis, to examine ideological stances evident through linguistic structures. She currently works as a researcher on the C.O.N.T.A.C.T. project at the University of Malta and she is a project officer with a local NGO working in the area of human rights and equality.
Acknowledgements
The research reported in this paper has been carried out as part of the C.O.N.T.A.C.T. project, which has received co-funding from the Rights, Equality & Citizenship Programme of the European Commission Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers (JUST/2014/RRAC/AG/HATE/6706). We are particularly grateful to Fabienne Baider and Sharon Millar for coming up with the original methodology on which this research is based. Finally, we would also like to thank the editors of this special issue for their patience and sound editorial advice.
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© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- From stereotypes and prejudice to verbal and physical violence: Hate speech in context
- Linguistic stereotypes in short- and long-term migrants’ discourses on Argentina, Germany and Austria
- Exploring xenophobic and homophobic attitudes in Malta: Linking the perception of social practice with textual analysis
- Conceptualising the Other: Online discourses on the current refugee crisis in Cyprus and in Poland
- Moral panic over migration in the broadcasting of the Czech Radio
- The framing of Muslims on the Spanish Internet
- Discourse and discrimination in Charlottesville: The rhetoric of white supremacists during the violent unrest in August 2017
- Lauren Mayberry vs. 4chan’s online misogyny: A Critical Discourse Analysis Perspective
- Proximizing the Ukraine conflict: The case of the United States and the Czech Republic
- Incivility and confrontation in online conflict discourses
Artikel in diesem Heft
- From stereotypes and prejudice to verbal and physical violence: Hate speech in context
- Linguistic stereotypes in short- and long-term migrants’ discourses on Argentina, Germany and Austria
- Exploring xenophobic and homophobic attitudes in Malta: Linking the perception of social practice with textual analysis
- Conceptualising the Other: Online discourses on the current refugee crisis in Cyprus and in Poland
- Moral panic over migration in the broadcasting of the Czech Radio
- The framing of Muslims on the Spanish Internet
- Discourse and discrimination in Charlottesville: The rhetoric of white supremacists during the violent unrest in August 2017
- Lauren Mayberry vs. 4chan’s online misogyny: A Critical Discourse Analysis Perspective
- Proximizing the Ukraine conflict: The case of the United States and the Czech Republic
- Incivility and confrontation in online conflict discourses
