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Part of
Language and Violence: Pragmatic perspectives
Edited by Daniel N. Silva
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 279] 2017
► pp. 141–168

Chapter 6
Free speech, hate speech, and hate beards

Language ideologies of Dutch populism

This paper explores the discourse and verbal strategies of the Dutch ‘Freedom Party’ (PVV), an islamophobic populist party that emerged in the first decade of the twenty-first century. In particular, it focuses on the linguistic ideologies implicit in PVV discourse, arguing that PVV spokespersons systematically construe their own utterances as mere words, and hence as deserving state protection; and the utterances of others as acts, and more specifically as acts of violence, deserving repression or prosecution. This asymmetric linguistic ideology may help us to explore empirical and normative questions concerning violence in language. In particular, the question of violence and responsibility is discussed on the basis of Norwegian Anders Breivik’s 2011 murderous assault on Norwegian social democrats, which explicitly appealed to PVV leader Wilders and his views on Islam.

Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 1.Genealogy of Dutch populism
  • 2.The ideology of the Freedom Party
  • 3.The language of the Freedom Party
  • 4.The hate speech trial and the Breivik assaults
  • 5.Speech acts and violence
  • Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 9 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.279.07lee
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Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

French, Brigittine M.
2020. Maledictive Language: Arguments and Conflict. In The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Leezenberg, Michiel
2015. Discursive violence and responsibility. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 3:1 ► pp. 200 ff. DOI logo

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