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Article published In: Discourses of aggression in Greek digitally-mediated communication
Edited by Ourania Hatzidaki and Ioannis E. Saridakis
[Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 8:2] 2020
► pp. 321–350

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Aggression in media-sharing websites in the context of Greek political/parliamentary discourse in the years of the economic crisis

 | University of the Aegean, Greece
 | University of the Aegean, Greece
 | University of the Aegean, Greece
Published online: 3 July 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00039.geo
Abstract
In the context of the Greek economic crisis during the years 2009–2019, the aim of the present study is to discuss language aggression and derogatory forms of speech attested in user polylogues commenting on instances of parliamentary discourse uploaded to computer mediated communication networks. Within the framework of (im)politeness research (Culpeper, Jonathan. 2005. “Impoliteness and Entertainment in the Television Quiz Show: The Weakest Link.” Journal of Politeness Research 11: 35–72. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2011. Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; . 2010a. “Introduction: The Status-Quo and Quo Vadis of (Im)politeness Research.” Intercultural Pragmatics 7 (4): 535–559. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Haugh, Michael. 2013. “Disentangling Face, Facework and Im/politeness.” Sociocultural Pragmatics 11: 46–73.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Lorenzo-Dus, Nuria, Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, and Patricia Bou-Franch. 2011. “On-line Polylogues and Impoliteness: The case of Postings Sent in Response to the Obama Reggaeton YouTube Video.” Journal of Pragmatics 431: 2578–2593. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Mitchell, Nathaniel, and Michael Haugh. 2015. “Agency, Accountability and Evaluations of Impoliteness.” Journal of Politeness Research 11(2): 207–238. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), we investigate the correlation between impoliteness and abusive verbal discourse in both domains, i.e. parliamentary sittings and social media commentary. We explore their potential to establish a common ground in viewing political issues and determining ideological polarizations. We also attempt a preliminary analysis of swear words and derogatory references to Greek political personnel and their instrumentalisation for the division of the readership into those who support and those who oppose different political agendas.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Impoliteness in off- and on-line discourse
  • 3.The historical/situational context of the study
    • 3.1Linguistic aggression in Greek parliamentary discourse
    • 3.2Greek political / parliamentary discourse and (social) media
  • 4.The data under scrutiny
  • 5.Analysis
    • 5.1Debates in the Hellenic Parliament and in media polylogues
    • 5.2Abusives in media polylogues
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
References (49)
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