Zum Verletzungspotenzial der deutschen und polnischen Bezeichnungen für Flüchtlinge – Analyse am Beispiel der Internetkommentare

Abstract

People hurt others not only with weapons, but also with words that can be used as weapons. In language, a lot of linguistic units can be found that serve the emotional injury. These include vulgarisms, swear words or swear names and curses used with the intention of harming others. Also in the refugee discourse can be found such units that express negative attitudes towards refugees and are verbalized with the help of certain means of language. They occur mainly in everyday conversations and in Internet comments that are spontaneously expressed on the net. In addition, certain lexical units, which occur as neutral expressions, are extended by an aggressive or pejorative character. My presentation aims to present certain expressions for refugees that are present in German and Polish comments of Internet users. Comments come from online press websites, where they have been added under certain articles about refugee issues or refugee life. On the basis of the analysis, it will be possible to point out certain thematic areas that are expressed to the refugees topics. These have an offensive potential and can be considered hurtful by refugees. In addition, it can be pointed out that they can create or reproduce a certain negative image of the refugees.

Keywords

• potential for injury
• refugees
• internet comments
• german-polish comparison