In search of hate speech in Lithuanian public discourse: A corpus-assisted analysis of online comments

Abstract

The present paper aims to report on the preliminary findings from the initial stages of ongoing research on hate speech in Lithuanian online comments. Comments are marked strongly by such phenomena as flaming and trolling; therefore, in this genre we can expect a high degree of hostility, obscenity, high incidence of insults and aggressive lexis, which can inflict harm to individuals or organizations. The goal of the current research is thus to make an attempt to identify some features of verbal aggression in Lithuanian by applying the principles and instruments of corpus linguistics, which proved to be a useful approach when dealing with such issues as trolling. It is expected that further analysis of those features will help to identify and define formal linguistic criteria that could facilitate identification of hate speech in public discourse. The data has been obtained from the Lithuanian corpus of user-generated comments collected from one major Lithuanian portal, www.delfi.lt. The corpus consists of all the comments posted in the year 2014 and in total includes 17,909 comments, which make up 1,160,109 words. For the initial data analysis, linguistic aspects, such as wordlists, collocations, and formulaic language, were analysed by using the AntConc software. The interpretations of the results are still very tentative, but what the initial findings show is that overt aggression does not feature among the most frequent and most salient features of comments. Aggression is, in our data, indirectly expressed through creative language use, which can mainly be studied through qualitative analysis.

Why do we need a sociocognitive-CDA in hate speech studies? A corpus-based systematic review

“…As can be observed in Figure 3, studies of hate speech related to discrimination against gender groups can be seen in the article of Baider (2018), Robinson and Spivey (2019), Ruzaite (2018), Readyera (2019), and Trindade (2020. This topic is most prominently discussed in an article by Robinson and Spivey (2019).…”

“RUBBISH” VS. “BUYER BE AWARE”: A Cross-Cultural Move Analysis of Chinese and American Negative Online Shopping Reviews and Their Corresponding Responses

“…al., 2014), "e-complaints" (Zheng, et. al., 2014), "negative online shopping comments" (Chen, 2015), "hate speech" (Ruzaite, 2018). For example, Zhang and Gu (2013) used "online negative evaluation" to define "expression of dissatisfaction"; Zheng, et.…”

“…Chen (2015) employed "negative online shopping comments" to describe "comments made by consumers that show their dissatisfaction with online sellers' commodities, logistics, services etc." Ruzaite (2018) used "hate speech" to define "(verbal) conduct or expressions that are abusive, insulting, intimidating or harassing and/or which incite violence, hatred or discrimination against groups identified by a specific set of characteristics".…”

“…As pointed out by Ho (2018), a better understanding of negative online review discourse may provide valuable resources for three parties: dissatisfied customers, the management and other customers. Therefore, increasing attention has been paid to negative online reviews across disciplines (Li, 2012;Ruzaite, 2018). Previous studies mainly approached negative online shopping reviews from non-linguistic and linguistic perspectives (Chen, 2015;Li, 2015;Zhang & Gu, 2013;Zheng, Youn & Kincaid, 2014).…”

We Are Not Parasites: Intergroup Differentiation in the User-Generated Content of Nigerian News Media

“…2016; Gagliardone et al, 2016;Brown, 2017;Chudnovskaya & Lipatova, 2018;Ruzaite, 2018). Also, there have been a number of studies from Nigeria focusing on influence of social media on how Nigerian youth use traditional mass media (Edogor, Jonah, & Ojo, 2014); online stance, civic engagements, and response to terrorist attacks (Chiluwa & Odebunmi, 2016), citizenship, participation and computed-mediated discourse (Chiluwa, 2012); new media and negative rhetoric (Ojebuyi, 2016); uprising of Boko Haram (a Nigerian terrorist group with its base in the north-eastern part of the country [Institute for Economics & Peace, 2015] and online pragmatic acts among Nigerians (Chluwa & Adegoke, 2013); ideology in the twits of Boko Haram (Chiluwa & Ajiboye, 2014); and social media and political campaigns in Nigeria (Ndinojuo, Ihejirika, Nikade, Godam, & Eludu, 2016).…”