A disturbing view of intercultural communication: findings of a study into hate speech in Polish
Adamczak-Krysztofowicz, Sylwia, Anna Szczepaniak-Kozak · LINGUISTICA SILESIANA · 2023
Most theoretical and empirical studies concerning intercultural communication seem to neglect the fact that numerous interlocutors' speech and nonverbal behaviour is intentionally impolite and motivated by their racist and/or xenophobic views, which becomes visible in contact with representatives of other cultures, nationalities or countries.Such speakers' behaviour may take the form of physical attacks, while their linguistic performance may include verbal/nonverbal signs of their prejudiced stance.Linguistic performance which is motivated by aggressive nationalism, intolerance or discrimination is termed hate speech.The available scientifi c literature on this topic is scant, except for some studies fuelled by the theoretical assumptions of critical discourse analysis.There are apparently no clear and precise criteria what constitutes an act of verbal and nonverbal violence.The authors of this paper aim therefore at portraying characteristic features of hate speech in Polish on the basis of articles collected throughout 2014 and 2015 from newspapers, magazines and Internet sites.The analysis took place as part of the RADAR project devoted to conducting research on hate speech directed towards migrants in Europe.The fi nd-* This publication has been written with the financial support of the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme of the European Union within the RADAR project (Regulating Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Racism -JUST/2013/FRAC/AG/6271).The project has won the VITA-Award for 2016.The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the RADAR Team and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Commission.We also need to point to the fact that the articles were collected as a joint effort of both our research team at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the one at Centrum Edukacyjne EST in Wadowice.We analyze articles found by this joint effort with a mutual and official permission.Special thanks should also go to Ms. Magdalena Jaszczyk for her initial analysis of the samples following the analysis template worked out by the RADAR partners.The analysis presented in this paper assumes a different categorization of data and only indirectly relies on the findings of the project's research endeavor.ings indicate there is a wide repertoire of words and phrases that are visible in Polish journalism and which promulgate racial, national or ethnic hate.