2023/05/11 by Awni Etaywe, Michele Zappavigna · 1 voice · 3 citations
Arts and Humanities · Computer Science · #Discourse Analysis in Language Studies #Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection #Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0047404523000404
openalex publication_date 2023/05/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract One key aspect of threat in terrorists’ language is incitement to violence. Contributing to a fuller understanding of how terrorists use language to encourage people to join their cause, this article examines the role of evaluative language in incitement strategies used by a far-rightist to align with and alienate particular social groups. The Affiliation framework (Knight 2010a; Zappavigna 2011; Etaywe & Zappavigna 2021; Etaywe 2022a), as grounded in systemic functional linguistics, is used to understand how values and social bonds are leveraged in the process of incitement, as explored in a manifesto published online by Brenton Tarrant, preceding his 2019 terrorist attack on two mosques in New Zealand. The findings reveal two main affiliation strategies used for incitement: communion (forging solidarity and alignments) and alienation. These strategies function to construct opposing social groups in discourse, with the condemned groups positioned as a threat, hostility legitimated as morally reasonable, and violence as warranted. (Far-right extremism, incitement, hate crimes, affiliation, morality of terrorism, forensic linguistics, conspiracy theory discourse)