Radicalized discourse: Definition, structure, and features

E.S. Palekha

Institute of Pedagogy, Psychology, and Social Problems, Kazan, 420039 Russia

E-mail: katerina.paleha@gmail.com

Received July 25, 2022

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

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DOI: 10.26907/2541-7738.2022.5.59-73

For citation: Palekha E.S. Radicalized discourse: Definition, structure, and features. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2022, vol. 164, no. 5, pp. 59–73. doi: 10.26907/2541-7738.2022.5.59-73. (In Russian)

Abstract

This article considers the ways in which verbal aggression and linguistic terrorism appear in the media and in communication as forms of the systemically developing radicalized discourse. It aims to reveal the communicative potential and verbal content of texts belonging to radicalized discourse using the methods of complex linguistic and communicative, content and intent, conceptual, stylistic and pragmatic, and discourse analyses, etc. A discourse description of aggressive texts published on the Internet was performed. The patterns of such linguistic behavior on the Internet that involves various manifestations of verbal aggression and deviance were analyzed. Examples from real linguo-criminological cases were examined. The discourse was investigated as a means of exercising a verbal impact on the addressee and escalating the social conflict. Cases from radicalized online discourse were presented. The potential for studying cognitive-psychological and communicative-social phenomena through language transformations (interdisciplinary approach, synergy of the humanities) was demonstrated. The following types of radicalized discourse were proposed: criminogenic and non-criminogenic, texts of horizontal reaction and vertical purposeful influence. At the level of theoretical generalizations, a definition of radicalized discourse was given, and its essential, functional, and structural features were singled out. The obtained results are important to prevent radicalization in online communicative practices.

Keywords: discourse, communicative practices, linguistic personality, impact, involvement, linguistic aggression, linguistic security, discommunication

Figure Captions

Fig. 1. Cut-in illustrations – comments by members of the group “Rightists. Extra” (‘Pravye. Zapasnaya’) on VKontakte (part 1).

Fig. 2. Cut-in illustrations – comments by members of the group “Rightists. Extra” (‘Pravye. Zapasnaya’) on VKontakte (part 2).

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