“Each ‘like’ is one migrant less in our country”: A study of xenophobic discourse in Mexico as shown in a corpus of YouTube comments

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35956/v.24.n1.2024.p.86-105

Keywords:

Migrants, Central America, Mexico, Xenophobia, Lexical Priming, YouTube

Abstract

This is a descriptive study about xenophobic discourses against Central American migration. Considering Lexical Priming Theory (Hoey 2005), we attempt to unravel the ideological uses of the linguistic pattern <possessive + place (casa, país, nación)>. The materials analyzed are comments made in videos published in YouTube dealing with the migrant caravans heading towards the Mexican border with the USA. Our results show specific and metaphorical uses that mostly support Mexican nationalists’ discourses against Central American Migrants. Semantic clustering of the verbs nested in that pattern points towards fears (phobias and prejudices) that the users of those platforms show against migrants.

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Author Biographies

Ana Ruth Sánchez Barrera, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro

Socióloga y lingüista (Universidad de Guadalajara, Maestría y Doctorado en la Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro). Sus intereses académicos son los discursos de odio en redes sociales y su análisis desde la lingüística computacional y la lingüística de corpus.

Ignacio Rodríguez Sánchez, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro

Docente e investigador de la Facultad de Lenguas y Letras de la Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro. Doctor en Lingüística Aplicada por la Swan- sea University (Gales, Gran Bretaña). Sus intereses académicos abarcan la lingüística de corpus, los modelos de adquisición de vocabulario y las humanidades digitales. Miembro del Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (nivel I)

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Published

2024-07-16

How to Cite

Sánchez Barrera, A. R., & Rodríguez Sánchez, I. (2024). “Each ‘like’ is one migrant less in our country”: A study of xenophobic discourse in Mexico as shown in a corpus of YouTube comments. Revista Latinoamericana De Estudios Del Discurso, 24(1), 86–105. https://doi.org/10.35956/v.24.n1.2024.p.86-105

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Section

Research articles

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