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Article published In:
Hate speech: Definitions, interpretations and practices
Edited by Fabienne H. Baider, Sharon Millar and Stavros Assimakopoulos
[Pragmatics and Society 11:2] 2020
► pp. 262–291

Culture-driven emotional profiles and online discourse extremism

| State University of Applied Sciences in Konin

Discourse practices are investigated in English and Polish online comments which display different degrees of linguistic extremism. The present contribution identifies the contexts and targets of such practices and argues that hate speech is conditioned by culture-driven emotional experience and emotion expression profiles prevailing in particular societies. The discussion focuses on Polish and UK English emotionality and on relevant cultural models of the negative emotion clusters identified in Polish and English online political and social comments in posts collected between 2013 and 2018 on topics connected mainly, though not exclusively, with migration and the perception of the Other. First, the article shows that there are differences in the display and expression of emotions between English and Polish discourses, the latter being more negatively explicit and more often addressing the current online interactant. Second, in both groups, two opposing camps are identified. Finally, the rise in meaning and expressiveness of radicalization is observed in both English and Polish across the investigated period.

Keywords: culture, discourse, emotions, extremism, online comments, hate speech
Article outline
  • 1.Conflict scenarios
    • 1.1Background
    • 1.2Imagined conflict, threat and fear control
  • 2.Disgust, threat, pride and fear
  • 3.Culture-driven emotional profiles
  • 4.Cultural dimensions
  • 5.The discourse of emotion
  • 6.Materials and data analysis
  • 7.Poland and UK emotional profiles
    • 7.1Demographic profiles of online users
    • 7.2Emotional profiles in conflict scenarios
      • 7.2.1Polish
      • 7.2.2English
    • 7.3Antagonistic camps
  • 8.Collocation patterns
    • 8.1Polish
    • 8.2English
  • 9.Discussion and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 July 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.18069.lew
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