The role of social affiliation in incitement: a social semiotic approach to far-right terrorists’ incitement to violence

Awni Etaywe, Michele Zappavigna

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

One key aspect of threat in terrorists' language is incitement to violence. Contributing to a fuller understanding of how terrorists use language to encourage people to join their cause, this article examines the role of evaluative language in incitement strategies used by a far-rightist to align with and alienate particular social groups. The Affiliation framework (Knight 2010a; Zappavigna 2011; Etaywe & Zappavigna 2021; Etaywe 2022a), as grounded in systemic functional linguistics, is used to understand how values and social bonds are leveraged in the process of incitement, as explored in a manifesto published online by Brenton Tarrant, preceding his 2019 terrorist attack on two mosques in New Zealand. The findings reveal two main affiliation strategies used for incitement: communion (forging solidarity and alignments) and alienation. These strategies function to construct opposing social groups in discourse, with the condemned groups positioned as a threat, hostility legitimated as morally reasonable, and violence as warranted.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)623–648
Number of pages26
JournalLanguage in Society
Volume53
Issue number4
Early online date2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2024
Externally publishedYes

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