Separated by a common language: How Breitbart and The New York Times produce different meanings from common words
| Published date | 01 August 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02633957211012959 |
| Author | Federico Mor,Erin J Nash,Fergus Green |
| Date | 01 August 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/02633957211012959
Politics
2024, Vol. 44(3) 319 –336
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/02633957211012959
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Separated by a common
language: How Breitbart and
The New York Times produce
different meanings from
common words
Federico Mor
UK Parliament, UK
Erin J Nash
Durham University, UK
Fergus Green
Utrecht University, The Netherlands and London School of Economics, UK
Abstract
We build on the work by Peled and Bonotti to illuminate the impact of linguistic relativity on
democratic debate. Peled and Bonotti’s focus is on multilingual societies, and their worry is that
‘unconscious epistemic effects’ can undermine political reasoning between interlocutors who do
not share the same native tongue. Our article makes two contributions. First, we argue that Peled
and Bonotti’s concerns about linguistic relativity are just as relevant to monolingual discourse.
We use machine learning to provide novel evidence of the linguistic discrepancies between two
ideologically distant groups that speak the same language: readers of Breitbart and of The New
York Times. We suggest that intralinguistic relativity can be at least as harmful to successful public
deliberation and political negotiation as interlinguistic relativity. Second, we endorse the building
of metalinguistic awareness to address problematic kinds of linguistic relativity and argue that the
method of discourse analysis we use in this article is a good way to build that awareness.
Keywords
discourse analysis, ideology, linguistic relativity, machine learning, political disagreement
Received: 28th July 2020; Revised version received: 30th March 2021; Accepted: 1st April 2021
Corresponding author:
Fergus Green, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, UK, WC2A 2AE.
Email: R.F.Green@lse.ac.uk
1012959POL0010.1177/02633957211012959PoliticsMor et al.
research-article2021
Article
320 Politics 44(3)
Introduction
The question of how language shapes thought has preoccupied scholars for decades, if not
centuries. In an article in the American Political Science Review, Peled and Bonotti
(2016) argue that ‘linguistic relativity’ creates political challenges for multilingual com-
munities. Linguistic relativity, they explain, is the phenomenon whereby the language we
use affects our cognition and the way we understand the world. Their article explores the
consequences of linguistic relativity for political theorising and democratic deliberation
in societies where more than one language is spoken. They argue that linguistic discrep-
ancies can undermine progress in moral and political scholarship, and act as a barrier to
successful public deliberation and political negotiation.
Peled and Bonotti’s solution to this challenge is twofold. First, they argue that states
need to ensure that all citizens and residents are taught a common civic language from an
early age. Second, they advocate building higher order awareness and appreciation of
language, which they call ‘political metalinguistic awareness’.
In this article, we provide novel evidence that shows that linguistic relativity effects occur
intralinguistically too. While Peled and Bonotti recognise the possibility of regional and
class differences within language groups, our analysis reveals another distinct source of
intralinguistic relativity that crosses regional and socio-economic class divides: political ide-
ologies. We obtain this evidence by comparing the language used by two politically distant
US news outlets: The New York Times (hereafter NYT) and Breitbart. We then explain why
Peled and Bonotti’s assertion that ‘the presence of intralinguistic relativity effects . . . should
not be seen as a threat to an otherwise epistemically coordinated demos’ is much too optimis-
tic. Crucially, Peled and Bonotti overlook the way in which intralinguistic relativity effects
can be exploited and used strategically for partisan political ends, a tactic we call ‘hacking’.
If we are correct, then Peled and Bonotti’s first strategy to address linguistic relativity –
ensuring all citizens learn a common language – is less likely to be an effective strategy. On
the contrary, we argue that their second strategy – building political metalinguistic aware-
ness – is more promising and important than they themselves recognise. We also suggest
that the methodology we present here can be used by scholars and educators to help build
such awareness.
The article proceeds as follows. We first introduce the theoretical context for our
investigation, covering scholarship on political disagreement and ideology. Then, we pro-
vide an account of our methodology and outline our results, focusing on three key topics.
In the discussion section, we compare inter- and intralinguistic relativity, explain how
linguistic relativity effects can be strategically ‘hacked’, and describe how metalinguistic
awareness could be built.
Theoretical context
Our wider theoretical aim in this article is to place the literature on linguistic relativity
underpinning Peled and Bonotti’s article into conversation with work in political science
that suggests the potential for a virulent and harmful form of intralinguistic relativity,
which in turn has implications for the likely effectiveness of the strategies they suggest.
Political disagreement
Peled and Bonotti’s (2016: 800–806) article critiques Rawlsian liberalism on the basis that
the kind of deliberative reason central to Rawls’ theory is undermined by the interpretive
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