“I think they should just be killed”: A semiolinguistic analysis of hate speech used as opinion in the interviews from the documentary Temporada de Caça

Abstract

Although the Brazilian Penal Code does not include specific legislation that classifies hate speech against the LGBTQIAPN+ population, the practice of homophobia is encompassed, under a broad categorization, as a crime within anti-racist laws. This legal framework, however, seems to have had little effect, given that the number of LGBTphobic attacks — whether physical or verbal — frequently continues to rise. This study, predominantly qualitative in nature (though we also make use of quantifications), analyzes 16 interviews from the 1988 documentary Temporada de Caça (Hunting Season), aiming to highlight the discursive strategies used to mask hate speech within the genre. To do so, we employ Patrick Charaudeau’s Semiolinguistic Theory (2003; 2008; 2015) in dialogue with Forensic Linguistics (Shuy, 1993). Overall, it was observed that in the analyzed corpus, hate speech appears in the form of an opinion posed as merely a personal thought, but which in fact carries a series of derogatory descriptions that not only incite violence against people who do not conform to heteronormativity, but also negatively portray them as a group. Furthermore, it was found that the interview genre seems to offer a contractual space that facilitates the expression of hate speech, particularly when the speaker prompts the interviewee to respond with what they “think”.