A Pragmatic Study of Racial Hate Speech

Abstract

There has been an increasing interest in hate speech  due to its impact on both individuals and societies. The term 'hate speech' covers expressions in any form deemed humiliating to any race, religion, ethnic or national group. Hate speech is connected to the freedom of expression , advocacy of hatred and incitement of  violence. Thus, it has to be understood in  the different contexts in which it occurs. The present study deals with racial hate speech. The main aim of this study is to identify the speech acts employed in articles published in a Rwandan newspaper called Kangura. In order to carry out a pragmatic analysis of racial hate speech, seven extracts have been chosen. The main conclusions arrived at is that directives  are the most common ones used in the dissemination of racial hate speech and indirect speech acts outnumber the direct ones.