Humour or hatespeech: auto- and hetero-stereotypes linked to the concepts of Alman and Kana(c)ke in Kiezdeutsch

Abstract

This paper examines the auto- and hetero-stereotypes[1] about immigrants (Kanaks) and Germans (Almans) contained in the so-called Alman-jokes and, in a wider sense, other humorous manifestations of stereotypes linked to the slur concepts of Alman and Kana(c)ke in German social media. The research is empirically grounded, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in a 3-billion-word corpus that has been annotated at both the morphological, syntactic and semantic levels to facilitate informed corpus inspection, pattern identification and statistics. We discuss the types of humorous constructions and word formations encountered, as well as the linguistic mechanisms and vehicles of possible hate speech linked to slur-based stereotyping. Theoretical aspects and identified stereotypes are illustrated with over 100 authentic joke examples from the corpus, as well as an exhaustive lexical overview of Alman/Kanak compounding and derivation processes. Finally, qualitative findings are backed up with collocation statistics, sentiment analysis and word vector distances from a machine-learned word embedding model.

[1] Here defined as generalized, fixed and over-simplified notions held about other ethic, religious or social groups (hetero-stereotypes) or about the corresponding self-group (auto-stereotypes).