“Don’t Use This Word”
Racist Hate Speech in Online English Dictionaries for Learners
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13136/2281-4582/2023.i22.1363Keywords:
online English lexicography, lerner's dictionary, hate speech, ethnic slur, ethnophaulismAbstract
This paper presents the preliminary findings of a wider research project which aims at exploring the relationship between racist hate speech and online English lexicography for learners. In particular, this pilot study focuses on the treatment of “ethnophaulisms” (Roback 1944), most commonly referred to as ethnic slurs, in the online editions of three major British English dictionaries for advanced learners: the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners and the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. The rationale behind this paper lies in the connection between two phenomena of the present cultural moment and digital age: the impact of the Internet on dictionary consulting (Jackson 2017; Béjoint 2016) and the alarming increase of online racism and xenophobia at the global level (see Gagliardone et al. 2015). Accordingly, the research objective is to analyse whether and how the three dictionaries selected include, label, define or, more generally, present learners with data reflecting the taboo and offensive nature of these instances of racist hate speech.
References
Allan, Keith and Kate Burridge. Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Allen, Irving. The Language of Ethnic Conflict: Social Organization and Lexical Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.
Béjoint, Henri. “Dictionaries for General Users: History and Development; Current Issues.” The Oxford Handbook of Lexicography. Edited by Philip Durkin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. 7-24.
Benson, Phil. Ethnocentrism and the English Dictionary. London: Routledge, 2001.
Burchfield, Robert. “Dictionaries and Ethnic Sensibilities.” The State of the Language. Edited by Leonard Michaels and Christopher Ricks. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980. 15-23.
Coffey, Stephen. “‘Offensive’ Items, and Less Offensive Alternatives.” English Monolingual Learners’ Dictionaries. Proceedings of the XIV EURALEX International Congress. Edited by Anne Dykstra and Tanneke Schoonheim. Leeuwarden: Fryske Akademy Afuk, 2010. 1270-1281.
Croom, Adam. “The Semantics of Slurs: A Refutation of Coreferentialism.” Ampersand 2 (2015): 30-38.
Faloppa, Federico. “L’hate speech, questo sconosciuto.” Lingua Italiana Treccani 2020a. https://www.treccani.it/magazine/lingua_italiana/speciali/Hate_speech/01_Faloppa.html.
---. #ODIO. Manuale di resistenza alla violenza delle parole. Torino: UTET, 2020b.
Filmer, Denise. Translating Racial Slurs: A Comparative Analysis of Gran Torino Assessing Transfer of Offensive Language between English and Italian. Published MA Thesis, Durham University, 2011. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3337.
---. “The ‘Gook’ Goes ‘Gay’: Cultural Interference in Translating Offensive Language.” inTRAlinea 14 (2012). http://www.intralinea.org/archive/article/1829.
Gagliardone, Iginio, et al. Countering Online Hate Speech. Paris: UNESCO Publications, 2015.
Green, Jonathon. “Language: Wash Your Mouth Out.” Critical Quarterly 46.1 (2004): 107-111.
Hauptfleisch, D.C. “Racist Language in Society and in Dictionaries: A Pragmatic Perspective.” Lexikos 3 (1993): 83-139.
Henderson, Anita. “What’s in a Slur?”. American Speech 78.1 (2003): 52-74.
Himma, Kenneth. “On the Definition of Unconscionable Racial and Sexual Slurs.” Journal of Social Philosophy 33.3 (2002): 512-522.
Hughes, Geoffrey. An Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, And Ethnic Slurs in The English-Speaking World. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 2006.
---. Political Correctness: A History of Semantics and Culture. Malden: Wiley Blackwell, 2010.
Iamartino, Giovanni. “Lexicography as a Mirror of Society: Women in John Kersey’s Dictionaries of the English Language.” Textus 33.1 (2020): 35-67.
Jackson, Howard. “English Lexicography in the Internet Era.” The Routledge Handbook of Lexicography. Edited by Pedro Fuertes-Olivera. London: Routledge, 2017. 540-553.
---. Lexicography: An Introduction. London: Routledge, 2013.
Krishnamurthy, Ramesh. “Ethnic, Racial and Tribal: The Language of Racism?”. Texts and Practices: Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis. Edited by Carmen Caldas-Coulthard and Malcolm Coulthard. London: Routledge, 1996. 129-149.
Lew, Robert and Gilles-Maurice de Schryver. “Dictionary Users in the Digital Revolution.” International Journal of Lexicography 27.4 (2014): 341-359.
Lorentzen, Henrik and Liisa Theilgaard. “Online Dictionaries – How Do Users Find Them and What Do They Do Once They Have?”. Proceedings of the XV EURALEX International Congress. Edited by Ruth Vatvedt Fjeld and Julie Matilde Torjusen. Oslo: University of Oslo, 2012. 654-660.
McCluskey, John. “Dictionaries and Labeling of Words Offensive to Groups, with Particular Attention to the Second Edition of the OED.” Dictionaries 11 (1989): 111-123.
MacMillan Education. “Macmillan Dictionary to Close After 14 Years of Online Excellence.” 2023. https://macmillaneducation.secure.force.com/help/bg_FAQArticle?id=kA04H0000005kwWSAQ&language=en%3Cb.
Moon, Rosamund. “Meanings, Ideologies, and Learners’ Dictionaries.” Proceedings of the XVI EURALEX International Congress: The User in Focus. Edited by Andrea Abel, Chiara Vettori and Natascia Ralli. Bolzano: Institute for Specialised Communication and Multilingualism, 2014. 85-105.
Müller-Spitzer, Caroline and Alexander Koplenig. “Online Dictionaries: Expectations and Demands.” Using Online Dictionaries. Edited by Caroline Müller-Spitzer. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2014. 143-188.
Murphy, M. Lynne. “Afrikaans, American, and British Models for South African English Lexicography: Racial Label Usage.” Lexikos 7 (1997): 153-164.
---. “Defining People: Race and Ethnicity in South African English Dictionaries.” International Journal of Lexicography 11.1 (1998): 1-33.
---. “Defining Racial Labels: Problems and Promise in American Dictionaries.” Dictionaries 13.1 (1991): 43-64.
Nissinen, Suvi. Insulting Nationality Words in Some British and American Dictionaries and in the BNC. MA Thesis, University of Tampere, 2015.
Norri, Juhani. “Labelling of Derogatory Words in Some British and American Dictionaries.” International Journal of Lexicography 13.2 (2000): 71-106.
OED (Oxford English Dictionary Online). “Ethnophaulism.” https://www.oed.com.
Palmore, Erdman. “Ethnophaulisms and Ethnocentrism.” American Journal of Sociology 67.4 (1962): 442-445.
Pettini, Silvia. “The Language of Ethnic Conflict in English Online Lexicography: Ethnophaulisms in ‘powered by Oxford’ Lexico.com.” Lexikos 33 (2023): 299-317.
Pinnavaia, Laura. “Defining and Proscribing Bad Language Words in English Learner’s Dictionaries.” Enforcing and Eluding Censorship: British and Anglo-Italian Perspectives. Edited by Giuliana Iannaccaro and Giovanni Iamartino. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars, 2014. 217-230.
---. “Tracing Political Correctness in Bilingual English-Italian Dictionaries.” Textus 33.1 (2020): 87-106.
Pullum, Geoffrey. “Slurs and Obscenities: Lexicography, Semantics, and Philosophy.” Bad Words: Philosophical Perspectives on Slurs. Edited by David Sosa. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. 168-192.
Rader, James. “People and Language Names in Anglo-American Dictionaries.” Dictionaries 11 (1989): 125-138.
Reid, Scott and Grace Anderson. “Language, Social Identity, and Stereotyping.” The Dynamics of Intergroup Communication. Edited by Howard Giles, Scott Reid, and Jake Harwood. New York: Peter Lang, 2010. 91-104.
Roback, Abraham. A Dictionary of International Slurs. Cambridge: Sci-Art Publishers, 1994.
Schutz, Rik. “Indirect Offensive Language in Dictionaries.” Proceedings of the X EURALEX International Congress. Edited by Anna Braasch and Claus Povlsen. Copenhagen: CST, 2002. 637-641.
Sellars, Andrew. “Defining Hate Speech.” Berkman Klein Center Research Publication 20 (2016). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2882244.
Semrush. Top Websites. 2023. https://www.semrush.com/website/top.
UN (United Nations). UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech. 2019. https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/advising-and-mobilizing/Action_plan_on_hate_speech_EN.pdf.
van Dijk, Teun. “Racism, Discourse and Textbooks: The Coverage of Immigration in Spanish Textbooks.” Paper for the Symposium on Human Rights in Textbooks, organized by the History Foundation, Istanbul, April 2004. https://discourses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Teun-A.-van-Dijk-2010-Racism-discourse-and-textbooks.pdf.
Wachal, Robert. “Taboo or Not Taboo: That is the Question.” American Speech 77.2 (2002): 195-206.
Wikipedia. “List of ethnic slurs.” 2023. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs.
Zgusta, Ladislav. “Some Developments in Lexicography, Past and Present.” Symposium on Lexicography IX. Edited by Jens Eric Mogensen, Viggo Hjornager Pedersen and Arne Zettersten. Halle: Max Niemer Verlag, 1998/2000. 11-26.
Žugić, Dragica and Milika Vuković-Stamatović. “Problems in Defining Ethnicity Terms in Dictionaries.” Lexikos 31 (2021): 177-194.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Silvia Pettini
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Iperstoria is an Open Access journal.- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 BY-NC License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of their work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. We require authors to inform us of any instances of re-publication.
