Aims
The study is aimed at researching the problem of racial slurs directed at indigenous Australians. There is no secret that ethnic conflicts and the lack of tolerance that they are triggered by occurs even in the modern democratic society.
According to the latest statistical data regarding the social conflicts in Australia, the issue of racial discrimination is getting increasingly significant as the lack of tolerance is growing out of proportions: “As many as one in five admit they would discriminate when sitting near an Indigenous Australian, or in a retail environment” (Discrimination against Indigenous Australians: A snapshot of the views of non-Indigenous people aged 25–44, 2014, p. 2).
The goals of the study are to identify the key racial slurs used for addressing indigenous Australians and to evaluate the changes in people’s attitudes towards the racial slurs in question (e. g, the transfer of a neutral term into the category of taboo words, a once pejorative word being turned into a neural one, the obsolescence of certain pejorative words for defining indigenous Australians, the emergence of new insults, etc.)
Background of the Community
The community in question is located in Melbourne and consists of approximately 11,750 people. 20 Australians aged 20–40 years old have been selected from this community for participation in the research and the identification of the key challenges, which the native residents of the area have to deal with on a regular basis when communicating with the non-native denizens of the local population.
It should be noted that the community in question has a comparatively old history; it was founded in 1850s and has been evolving ever since.
The community can be considered quite diverse, much like the city of Melbourne in general; being a part of the capital, it represents a range of nationalities and ethnic groups, including not only indigenous Australians, but also a range of people belonging to other nationalities and ethnicities.
Historically, the local denizens can be split into two key groups, i.e., the native residents and the descendants of the European immigrants.
However, at present, the groups representing the culture of “New Zealand, Korea, Italy, Somalia, India, the United Kingdom” (Multicultural communities, 2015) are identified among the target population.
While the community under analysis can be considered as rather diverse, the conflicts between the native and non-native citizens have increased in number (Islam & Jaai, 2013, p. 54). As a result, the use of a range of obscenities directed at the origin of the local dwellers has also been enhanced.
Literature Review
Though not being know as infamously wide as the racial profiling of the African Americans and other ethnicities living in the United States and Europe, the issue of discrimination towards the native residents of Australia also deserves the attention of researchers as a rather cruel subjugation of the local culture.
The use of the slurs, which are addressed to the native residents of Australia, seems to have gone through major changes.
While admittedly retaining their offensive context, the racial slurs, which are directed at the Australian population, seem to have become geared towards the application of the words that have an intrinsically diminishing connotation in the English language, i.e., are characterized by emotional coloring, rather than the use of the elements of the Australian culture alone.
The specified issue can be viewed from the tenets of both the theory of linguistics and the existing social theories.
In fact, the impact of the social factors on the evolution of the pejorative terms, which the residents of Australia use in order to insult the indigenous inhabitants of the state, is evident; the significance thereof can be traced easily in the derogatory terms, which are used as a racial slur nowadays.
In fact, the amount of the social issues, which the obscenities in question are directed onto, have altered significantly; for instance, the gender issue seems to have gained new and much greater significance in the relationships between the native Australians and the local residents.
A closer look at the existing racial slurs used in order to offend the Australian people shows that, in addition to ridiculing various elements of the Australian culture, the members of the Australian communities also seem to be engaging into the word building process, which presupposes using the English words as the basis for creating diminishing titles for the native Australians.
While the idea of addressing the origin of the indigenous Australian people still constitutes a major part of the racial slurs directed at the population in question (e.g., the words such as “abo” meaning aboriginal exist), there is a very strong tendency towards creating new words (Australian aboriginals, 2015, para. 2).
As far as the type of word building used in the course of creating new racial slurs is concerned, the techniques known as compounding (Javen, Juad & Nazli 2012) and blending can be identified.
The specified type of words formation, in fact, correlates with the present-day evolution of the so-called computer language, i.e., the incorporation into the traditional language of the elements of information technology (Liu & Liu, 2014, p. 23).
The given type of neologisms creation can be considered not as threatening to the native denizens of the Australian population, as these neologisms seem to have a rather quick staying power and will most likely be washed away by the sands of time within a couple of years, if not months (Liu & Liu, 2014, p. 24).
The lack of the above-mentioned staying power of the words in question can be explained by the fact that they are rarely linked strongly to the specifics of the native Australians’ culture and are in most cases inspired by a fad.
Seeing that the latter vanishes rather quickly and leaves very little impact on either the people insulting the target audience, or the ones, whom the insult is directed at, the specified racial slurs can hardly be viewed as a consistent threat to the wellbeing of the representatives of Australia (Liu & Liu, 2014, p. 25).
The former type of racial slur, though having clearly aged, still can be viewed as the most offensive one for the native denizens of the Australian continent.
There are several reasons for the specified effect to occur; first and most obvious, the former type of slur is rooted deeply in the Australian culture and, therefore, attacks it by mocking it.
As a result, the sensitivity of the people, whom it addresses, peaks, and the offence takes its toll on the indigenous population of the Australian people. Second, the offensive concepts in question have a very long history and, therefore, are packed with the semes, which the new ones do not yet possess.
More importantly, the issue concerning the evolution of racial slurs directed at the native Australians has gained additional significance over the past few years due to the tension in the relationships between the indigenous residents of Australia and the descendants of the colonists, who consider the natives a potential threat to the further evolution of the culture and the acceptance of new cultural influences (Liu & Liu, 2014, p. 29).
Another look at the amount of the racially insensitive verbal attacks, which the Australian population subjects the native residents of the continent to, will reveal that the use of metonymy has become increasingly important in designing racial slurs.
Seeing that Australia is characterized by a range of unique features, which are attributed to its nature, including both flora and fauna, there has been an obvious tendency towards using the elements of the Australian culture as the tools for abusing the denizens of the local population and, therefore, disparaging the people that belong to the Australian culture.
A single glance at the specifics of the semantic components of the racially insensitive words used previously will show that they were aimed at ridiculing the Australian culture in the first place (Liu & Liu, 2014, p. 27).
The present-day racial slurs, however, seem to have been updated in accordance with the changes in the relationships between the local residents and the people belonging to different cultures.
Specifically, the tendency to incorporate more general words at the root of the new racial slurs seems to have become dominant in the relationships between the native Australians and the representatives of other cultures.
For instance the words such as “chromer” or “goggles” (,Australian aboriginals, 2015, para. 8, para 14) do not seem to have anything to do with the Australian culture in particular; instead, they clearly represent a metonymic transfer of certain semes onto the representatives of the indigenous Australian culture.
In fact, the types of word formation, which is used as the basis for developing racial slurs aimed at the native Australian population, have also been altered significantly, with the key emphasis having been shifted onto the concept of blending (Liu & Liu, 2014, p. 23).
The evolution, which the racially insensitive elements of the Australian English language have undergone, therefore, displays the tendency for the racial slurs to become less culture oriented and more superficial.
Seeing that metonymy has become the defining driving force behind the creation of new racial slurs in Australia, the tendency for the use of the elements of the elements of the local culture seems to subside, leaving more room for the use of the features that stress the key features of the local people’s character; as a result, there is an obvious leaning towards the use of English words as opposed to the Australian ones.
For example, the highly offensive term “queue warmer” (Australian aboriginals, 2015, para. 8, para 23) signifies an obvious shift towards the incorporation of the English words and the elements of the English reality into the context of the Australian culture.
Theoretical Positioning
The issues of intercultural relationships and the lack of tolerance have been discussed by a range of theorists from a variety of viewpoints.
However, when it comes to identifying the key reasons for the change in the vocabulary, which is used primarily for establishing complicated social relationships with another racial or ethnic group, the incorporation of a linguistic and a social theory into the analysis must be considered.
Therefore, the subject matter will be viewed from the tenets of both the conflict theory and the objectivist theory of semantic change, which is also known as the truth-conditional theory (Wulf, 2013, p. 97).
Indeed, according to the latter theoretical premise, the changes, which the negative epithets used for denoting native Australians have suffered, can be explained as the evolution of the Australian vocabulary and the attempt of the representatives of the Australian culture to incorporate new meanings into the words that are traditionally used in an everyday setting by conducting a metaphorical and metonymic transfer of a specific quality or a set of qualities from the object in question to the native Australians living in the community.
Thus, the definition of the semantic components, which allow Australian people to refer to the native residents of the community in a specific manner, will be carried out, and the principles, which the pejorativization of the words in question occurs, will become possible under the specified theoretical premises.
The analysis of the qualities, which are associated with specific words and, therefore, are attributed to the indigenous Australian people, can be carried out with the help of the theory in question.
As Hollman explains, the theory works as the tool for isolating the properties of certain denominators and, thus, for specifying the differences between specific groups of words:
If we describe the differences in meaning between the words man, woman, boy and girl in terms of the properties [+/- male] and [+/- adult], we can take a human being, and use those properties (often called semantic components) to decide objectively whether to refer to them as a man, woman, boy or girl.
This is the basis of the so-called objectivist or truth-conditional theory of semantics. (Hollman, 2014, p. 526)
Therefore, the theory in question will help view the change, which the racially insensitive words have gone through over the curse of several decades; as a result, a detailed analysis of the differences in the linguistic and semantic characteristics of the words, which were and are used as pejorative terms for denoting native Australians.
The second theoretical basis, in its turn, can be viewed as an opportunity for embracing not only the linguistic, but also the social factors into the analysis of the subject of the research, therefore, making a more elaborate commentary on the problem.
It will be reasonable, thus, to integrate the social factors into the analysis to see their effect on the linguistic changes. Specifically, the alterations in the connotations of the words, which are used as the tools for insulting the native Australian residents, will be integrated into the study.
Research Questions
In the course, of the study, the following questions are expected to be answered:
- What are the key changes that have occurred to the denomination of the native Australians among the rest of the denizens of the Australian population, and what social changes do these linguistic alterations can be the signifiers of?
- Does the racially insensitive denotation of the native Australians tend to be geared towards the pejoration of the words that used to be the elements of people’s everyday vocabulary, or are these words subject specific?
- What are the key tendencies in the development of the racial slurs used towards the native Australian residents of the North Melbourne community?
- What principles is the process of creating the racial slurs directed at the native Australians based on and what concepts, both social and vocabulary related ones, is this process founded on?
- Is there a way to stop the process of the creation of ethnic slurs in the Australia English vocabulary?
Methodology
The study is going to be carried out as a qualitative research of the subject matter. It should be born in mind, though, that the issue in question is rooted deeply in the historic relationships between the indigenous residents of North Melbourne and the people, whose ancestors migrated to the specified place prior to the development of the conflict.
Hence the need to carry out a twofold study emerges. Specifically, the necessity for conducting an analysis of the present-day situation, i.e., the modern attitudes towards native Australians, and the historical premises, which the current situation owes its existence to, must be mentioned.
Consequently, it will be reasonable to suggest that the general ethnographic study of the issue should be conducted, with a thorough analysis of the linguistic changes, which the attitude towards the native Australians was manifested with.
However, carrying out a historical evaluation of the issue will only bring fruitful results when compared to the implications of a present-day research; herein the significance of another part of the qualitative study, i.e., the evaluation of the modern attitudes towards native Australian, factors.
Thus, apart from the general qualitative analysis of the existing historical records of the relationships between the native Australians and the rest of the North Melbourne population, the need for conducting the assessment of the terminology used for addressing native Australians with a negative connotation emerges.
The specified study will be held with the help of questionnaires; distributed among 20 indigenous representatives of the Australian population, the questions will concern two major issues.
The first one will address the words that are typically used as a racial slur directed at the people in question and the frequency, with which the slurs in question are addressed to the respondents.
Apart from the specified issue, the attitudes towards the racial slurs mentioned above will be evaluated. To be more specific, after the first part of the assessment is over, the pejorative words provided by the research participants will be gathered and analyzed.
Afterwards, these words will be incorporated into the next survey, and the respondents will be asked to evaluate the words in question with the help of the Likert scale according to their offensiveness based on the respondents’ subjective estimation.
It should be noted that the specified study design contains a range of limitations, the personal experience of the participants and their objective view of what is offensive and what is not being the key impediments to the objectivity of the study.
Indeed, there is no need to stress that the personal impressions of the study participants are far from being trustworthy material to work with. However, the fact that the research will be based on the subjective impressions of the respondents will also have positive effects on the outcomes of the research, as it will provide an inside opinion on the subject matter and, therefore, will help understand the difference in the effect, which racial slurs have on the indigenous population of Australia.
Specifically, the changes in the attitudes towards the obscenities that are used regularly, as well as towards the ones that have emerged comparatively recently, will be evaluated.
In addition, the analysis of the origin of the words that are used as racial slur addressed towards the native Australians will be carried out, with the subsequent comparison of the linguistic basis for the specified words now and several decades prior.
In the course of the first part of the study, personal interviews will be conducted so that the participants could describe the obscenities that they hear most often in an adequate and appropriate manner.
As far as the second part of the research, the aforementioned Likert-type scale will be used for the research participants to evaluate the words that they will have mentioned.
It is suggested that the ANOVA type of statistical analysis should be used when carrying out the study in question should be used; thus, the results retrieved in the process will be measurable, precise and trustworthy (Perez, 2008, p. 203).
It is assumed that the application of the random-effect model will help understand the nature of the changes, which have occurred to the denotation of the native Australian residents, as well as identify the effects, which these alterations in the Australian language and the Australian culture have had on the Melbourne society in general and the North Melbourne community in particular.
As Perez (2008) stresses, “The main advantage of the random-effect model, and the reason for including it, is that it allows one to check the main effects of the linguistics acculturation variables, which is not possible with a fixed effects design” (Perez, 2008, p. 202).
In other words, the specified model allows for locating the reasons for the words to evolve in a specific direction and be perceived as either offensive or not by the target population (i.e., native Australians).
Finally, the further comparison of the words selected by the latter with the ones that will have been found with the help of the general research will be conducted.
Ethics
Seeing that the study will involve the participation of human subjects, it will be imperative to make sure that informed consent has been obtained from each of them.
Therefore, it will be crucial to send the participants-to-be informed consent forms for them to sign; thus, the research will be considered legitimate, and its implications will be viewed as objective and trustworthy.
The informed consent forms will be suggested for the participants to sign at the beginning of the research. It should be born in mind, though, that some of the study members may have special abilities and needs. Therefore, the informed consent of their parents, tutors or guardians should be obtained prior to the study.
Timeline
It is assumed that the research is going to take place in the course of three months. The specified time frame will allow both for gathering the related information carefully and for processing it thoroughly. To be more specific, the research will be carried out in three key stages.
First, the information concerning the use of racial slurs directed at the naĂŻve Australian population in the past will be collected (weeks 1, 2, 3 and 4); then, the questionnaires containing queries concerning the present-day state of affairs regarding the subject matter will be distributed among the target population (weeks 5 and 6).
Finally, the third and final stage, which will take roughly two weeks, will incorporate the analysis of the data acquired in the course of the study and the identification of the key research implications.
Potential Educational Implications
Though the significance of the study in question is far from being global, the issue still can be qualified as rather significant, as it both provides a deep insight on the evolution of the present-day English and allows for locating the key implications of the social moods in the realm of linguistics and language use.
In other words, the results of the study can be considered the basis for carrying out another study aimed at analyzing the significance of the factors such as the Australian native words (primarily pre-1870 vocabulary), the use of the stereotypical images associated with Australia and its culture (e.g., a boomerang) for transforming them into offensive words (e.g., “boomerang” – “boomer,” etc.) on the further evolution of the vocabulary, which is considered offensive for the indigenous Australian people..
More importantly, the study in question sheds some light on the key processes, which the Australian language is undergoing currently in the context of the international conflict, which is about to erupt in Australia. Therefore, the outcomes of this study can be used as the tool for developing suggestions for the further resolution of the conflict.
Reference List
Australian aboriginals. (2015). Racial Slur Database. Web.
Discrimination against Indigenous Australians: A snapshot of the views of non-Indigenous people aged 25–44. (2014). Beyond Blue. Web.
Islam, A. & Jaai, P. (2013). Do immigrants save less than natives? Immigrant and native saving behaviour in Australia. Economic Record, 89 (289), 52–71.
Javen, J., Juad, W. X. & Nazli, J. (2012). Etymological analysis of the English language words. Language in India, 12(10), 580–592.
Liu, W. & Liu, W. (2014). Analysis on the word-formation of English netspeak neologism. Journal of Arts and Humanities, 3 (12), 22–30.
Multicultural communities. (2015). City of Melbourne. Web.
Perez, R. M. (2008). Exploring the moderating effect of linguistic acculturation and context on the subjective well-being of Hispanic adolescents. Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest.
Wulf, D. J. (2013). Speech acts and the truth-conditional analysis of temporal expressions. Philosophy Study, 3 (2), 97–112.