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Chapter 4. “Burn the antifa traitors at the stake…”

Transnational political cyber-exchanges, proximisation of emotions
  • Fabienne H. Baider and Maria Constantinou
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Current Issues in Intercultural Pragmatics
This chapter is in the book Current Issues in Intercultural Pragmatics

Abstract

The present contribution examines the use of lingua franca in a transnational computer mediated corpus, focusing on the extreme-right Greek political party Golden Dawn. Our data include the visual identities, pseudonyms and verbal comments of discussants. We investigate the processes through which an emergent common ground is built in this on-line far-right discourse, mainly through co-constructed salient lexical and conceptual units. This salience helps proximise emotions and in particular the notion of a threat which is at the heart of far-right discourse argumentation. We shed light on the discursive strategies put in place on the individual level with a view to creating, perpetuating and strengthening the immanency and closeness of the threat, which allegedly legitimises a particular course of action. When comparing our findings with the results of previous studies focused on other Greek and French data we argue, on the basis of the presence of common features, for the existence of a dedicated lingua franca which could be called (extreme)-right newspeak.

Abstract

The present contribution examines the use of lingua franca in a transnational computer mediated corpus, focusing on the extreme-right Greek political party Golden Dawn. Our data include the visual identities, pseudonyms and verbal comments of discussants. We investigate the processes through which an emergent common ground is built in this on-line far-right discourse, mainly through co-constructed salient lexical and conceptual units. This salience helps proximise emotions and in particular the notion of a threat which is at the heart of far-right discourse argumentation. We shed light on the discursive strategies put in place on the individual level with a view to creating, perpetuating and strengthening the immanency and closeness of the threat, which allegedly legitimises a particular course of action. When comparing our findings with the results of previous studies focused on other Greek and French data we argue, on the basis of the presence of common features, for the existence of a dedicated lingua franca which could be called (extreme)-right newspeak.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I. The socio-cultural turn in pragmatics
  5. Chapter 1. Determinacy, distance and intensity in intercultural communication 9
  6. Chapter 2. “Western” Grice? 33
  7. Part II. Lingua franca communication
  8. Chapter 3. Why is miscommunication more common in everyday life than in lingua franca conversation? 55
  9. Chapter 4. “Burn the antifa traitors at the stake…” 75
  10. Part III. Business communication
  11. Chapter 5. The interpersonal pragmatics of intercultural financial discourse 105
  12. Chapter 6. Face-threatening e-mail complaint negotiation in a multilingual business environment 129
  13. Part IV. Cultural perceptions
  14. Chapter 7. Auto- and hetero-stereotypes in the mutual perception of Germans and Spaniards 159
  15. Chapter 8. The interactive (self-)reflexive construction of culture-related key words 181
  16. Chapter 9. “It’s really insulting to say something like that to anyone” 207
  17. Part V. Translation
  18. Chapter 10. Identities and impoliteness in translated Harry Potter novels 231
  19. Chapter 11. Presuppositions, paralanguage, visual kinesics 255
  20. Part VI. Pragmatic development
  21. Chapter 12. Development of pragmatic routines by Japanese learners in a study abroad context 275
  22. Chapter 13. A cross­sectional study of Syrian EFL learners’ pragmatic development 297
  23. Chapter 14. The pragmatic competence of student-teachers of Italian L2 323
  24. Chapter 15. Adaptive management and bilingual education 347
  25. Index 367
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.274.05bai

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I. The socio-cultural turn in pragmatics
  5. Chapter 1. Determinacy, distance and intensity in intercultural communication 9
  6. Chapter 2. “Western” Grice? 33
  7. Part II. Lingua franca communication
  8. Chapter 3. Why is miscommunication more common in everyday life than in lingua franca conversation? 55
  9. Chapter 4. “Burn the antifa traitors at the stake…” 75
  10. Part III. Business communication
  11. Chapter 5. The interpersonal pragmatics of intercultural financial discourse 105
  12. Chapter 6. Face-threatening e-mail complaint negotiation in a multilingual business environment 129
  13. Part IV. Cultural perceptions
  14. Chapter 7. Auto- and hetero-stereotypes in the mutual perception of Germans and Spaniards 159
  15. Chapter 8. The interactive (self-)reflexive construction of culture-related key words 181
  16. Chapter 9. “It’s really insulting to say something like that to anyone” 207
  17. Part V. Translation
  18. Chapter 10. Identities and impoliteness in translated Harry Potter novels 231
  19. Chapter 11. Presuppositions, paralanguage, visual kinesics 255
  20. Part VI. Pragmatic development
  21. Chapter 12. Development of pragmatic routines by Japanese learners in a study abroad context 275
  22. Chapter 13. A cross­sectional study of Syrian EFL learners’ pragmatic development 297
  23. Chapter 14. The pragmatic competence of student-teachers of Italian L2 323
  24. Chapter 15. Adaptive management and bilingual education 347
  25. Index 367
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