Understanding emotions in hate speech: A methodology for discourse analysis

Abstract

In recent years, emotions have been receiving considerable attention in discourse analysis, identified as a defining feature of contemporary political discourses. However, most of the previous studies in the field have focused on the categorization of emotions and on how these are present in texts. This approach fails if we want to understand the mechanisms that underpin the relevance of emotions in political discourse, because emotion categories do not tell us much about how and why an emotion is constructed as such. The purpose of this article is to propose a new framework for a more comprehensive analysis drawing upon previous studies on emotions from sociocognitive and constructivist perspectives. Taking into account that emotions are constructed by the addressee -and not by the speaker or the discourse itself-, I present a methodological approach that includes all the elements in play when an emotion arises. Example analysis of hate speech messages are provided to show the contributions that can be made to discourse analysis using this method.