Key Words in the Discourse of Discrimination: A Semantic Analysis

Abstract

This thesis is an inquiry into discrimination, from a semantic perspective. In the discourse of discrimination, there is a set of key words. These terms are identified as the 'processes' of discrimination, the progressive stages and manifestations of sociocultural conflict. There are several dimensions to discrimination: a 'rhetorical' dimension, consisting of the speech acts of discrimination; a 'social' dimension, including the behaviours associated with discrimination; and a 'cognitive' dimension, which includes the underlying attitudes and ideologies. This thesis presents and justifies semantic explications for a field of words pertaining to the language of abuse, hatred and the 'processes' of discrimination. The discussion is categorised into four sections, commencing with an examination of the speech act verbs: 'insult', 'abuse', 'denigrate', 'vilify' and 'offend'. Then follows an analysis of words that describe the social acts of discrimination,including 'dehumanise', 'demonise', 'marginalise', 'stigmatise' and 'discriminate'. Next is an analysis of words that describe the cognitive elements of discrimination, including 'stereotype', 'intolerance', 'prejudice', 'xenophobia', 'racism' and 'sexism'. The analysis considers aspects of semantic phenomena, including: synonymy, polysemy, metaphor and ambiguity. The final section is a treatise on overt and covert discrimination, and discusses perspectives and directions in this area of research.