Ty jako wartość w debacie o słowie Murzyn
You as value in the debate concerning the lexeme Murzyn

Summary/Abstract: The acceptability of the Polish M-word (corresponding to the N-word in English) has been debated in the social media. In the debate, the adversaries vary not only in their views, but also in ways they formulate and justify them. In the present paper, we analyze a sample of Facebook posts in which the authors not only express the opinions of Polish Blacks as a key argument in favor of rejecting the M-word, but also argue that giving hearing to Black voices shows regard for the well-being of the Other. On the other hand, we assume that such posts may constitute Face Threatening Acts against those who consider the M-word non-offensive. Therefore, we study the degree to which politeness strategies are employed by the authors to weaken this threat. The analysis presented in the paper is only qualitative, while the adopted interdisciplinary perspective draws on sociology and linguistics.

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