Unravelling Hate from Offensive Speeches within Tiaret Speech Community: Crossing off Sociocultural Boundaries or Intensifying Vilification.

Abstract

This study attempted to unravel ‘hate and offensive' speeches within the Algerian Speech Repertoire as a whole and in Tiaret Speech Community (hereafter TSC) in particular. It focussed mainly on the issue of ‘nicknaming’ under two major categories that are positive and negative intentions. In fact, this research adopted a mixed methods of research; both qualitative and quantitative paradigms, in which an observer’s paradox (during observation phase) was used as a research instrument as well as a detailed questionnaire that was designed for (150) participants and distributed randomly on Master students of both levels and specialties in the Section of English at Ibn Khaldoun University of Tiaret. After interpreting the collected data, the main findings of this study show that the use of ‘hate speech and nicknaming’ have become prevalent in TSC and among EFL students who address their mates using negative nicknames. This results from several reasons including; jealousy, transmitted stereotypes and hatred. Besides, they use such negative linguistic practices to achieve various purposes such as: demoralising their co-participants or unleashing their anger; whereas, positive nicknames are formed as a means to reinforce the social cohesion among them and their closer friends or classmates. The results also indicate a variety of motives that the participants rely on to formulate nicknames based on the addressee’s attributes such as: origin, physical appearance, behaviour, etc. Unsurprisingly, it has been demonstrated that the use of ‘negative offensive nicknames and hate speech’ are perceived to be rude and inappropriate and result in many educational, social and psychological consequences such as: loneliness, violence, crimes, depression, etc.