A linguistic analysis of nationality-based hate speech on Facebook : the case of the Italian language

This chapter addresses some linguistic characteristics of hate speech in social media. The research was carried out on the basis of a corpus in Italian comprising posts and comments published on two Facebook groups: Italiani a Cracovia (Italians in Krakow) and Italiani in Polonia (Italians in Poland). These groups have about 26,500 members, mainly Italians who live or plan to come and live or travel in Poland and Poles who for various reasons are linked to Italian culture and/or language. This is an important factor as the heterogeneity of the group has an impact on the language used within it, which is also varied. The study analysed utterances on different topics in order to understand whether and how the idea of belonging to a given nation (in this particular case, Italy or Poland) can form the basis of hate speech. The analysis revealed significant variation in the manifestation of hatred that can be expressed through the use of specific words, such as slurs or vulgarisms, but also through grammatical choices, for instance pronominal contrasts. The research also confirmed that not only is hate speech transmitted lexically and grammatically but also through context-dependent irony and cynicism.