This paper, based on an extensive corpus of Danish and German data from social media, analyses dehumanising metaphors in xenophobic on-line hate speech from different angles (e.g. source domains, target groups, preferred co-occurrence patterns) to uncover the conceptualisation of certain “foreign” target groups by hate commentators.
Having been an integral part of the repertoire of hostile language use and xenophobic discourse across cultures and times, dehumanising or depersonalising metaphors and metonymies (henceforth: neg.hum-metaphors) are consistently attracting linguists’ critical attention (cf. e.g. Musolff 2015, Schwarz-Friesel 2015). This paper, based on an extensive corpus of Danish and German data from social media, aims to contribute to the existing knowledge by addressing the following research questions: (i) Which tendencies can, from a quantitative point of view, be observed in combining certain semantic classes of neg.hum-metaphors (e.g. mass movement: flood; illness: plague; excretion: shit; vermin: rats) with expressions for different target groups such as foreigners, asylum seekers, immigrants, etc. in on-line hate speech in the two languages examined? (ii) What are the preferred co-occurrence patterns of target group and neg.hum-metaphors? (iii) Which remarkable differences can be found between the Danish and the German data? (iv) Which conclusions can be drawn from the observed tendencies regarding the conceptualisation of certain “foreign” target groups by hate commentators using Danish and German? In the analysis, special attention is paid to the difference between the uses of neg.hum-metaphors as predicates (X are rats) vs. as referential expressions (These rats do y; We should z these rats), since the latter prove to be more deeply embedded in the statements made: The similarity, that is just asserted in a neg.hum-metaphorical predication structure, is, as a presupposition, already put into effect, when the neg.hum-metaphorical expression is used for reference, creating a more subtle way of expressing hate speech. References Musolff, Andreas. 2015. Dehumanizing metaphors in UK immigrant debates in press and online media. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 3/1, 41-56. Schwarz-Friesel, Monika. 2015. Antisemitische Hass-Metaphorik: Die emotionale Dimension aktueller Judenfeindschaft. Interventionen 6, 38-44.
