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Article published In:
Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict
Vol. 11:2 (2023) ► pp.279–306

Understanding and appraising ‘hate speech’

ORCID logo | University of Reading , England | University of Nottingham , England
Hate speech has become a matter of international concern, permeating institutional and lay discussions alike. Yet, exactly what it means to refer to a linguistic act as ‘hate speech’ remains unclear. This paper examines the lay understanding of hate speech, focusing on (1) the relationship between hate speech and hate, and (2) the relationship between hate speech and offensive speech. As part of the second question, the paper considers how hate speech is defined as a legal matter in the UK Public Order Act 1986. The study adopts a corpus-based discourse analysis approach and examines 255 hate speech-related news articles and the general English Web 2020 corpus. Hate speech is a complex multifaceted phenomenon; while ‘hate’ is one of its core characteristics, it is not sufficient to assess a certain behaviour as hate speech. Threats, denigration of the targets based on a protected characteristic (age, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability), the potential to cause harm and the intent to stir up hatred are also essential in distinguishing hate speech and offense.
Keywords: hate speech, ordinary meaning, legal discourse, offensive speech, corpus linguistics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.A case for studying the ordinary meaning of ‘hate speech’
    • 2.1Practical reasons for studying the ordinary meaning of ‘hate speech’
    • 2.2Theoretical reasons for studying the ordinary meaning of ‘hate speech’
  • 3.Data and methods
  • 4.Hate and hate speech
    • 4.1When hate is not an emotion
    • 4.2Extreme negative evaluation as core meaning: Promotion of hate speech and countering measures
      • 4.2.1Perpetrating hate speech
      • 4.2.2Fighting hate
  • 5.Offence and hate speech
    • 5.1Hate speech as regulatable speech
    • 5.2The legal characterisation of hate speech
      • 5.2.1Uses of legal-related terminology beyond legal registers
      • 5.2.2Semantic mapping of “threatening”, “abusive” and “insulting”
        • a.Characteristics
        • b.Entities
        • c.Targets
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 23 May 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00082.vil
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