Language in conspiracy theories

• Applicants: Professor Dr. David Römer; Professor Dr. Sören Stumpf
• Subject Area: Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 495420289

Conspiracy theories have become the focus of media attention in recent years. Thus, numerous events – such as migration or the Corona pandemic – are reinterpreted as conspiracies. Being an integral part of public discourse, conspiracy theories are occasionally applied as a basis for legitimizing terrorist attacks or right-wing and left-wing extremist violence. Due to their inflammatory social and political nature, conspiracy theories have long been the subject of extensive research in various areas such as sociology, psychology, philosophy, media studies, history and political science. However, linguists have hitherto neglected to discover conspiracy theories as an area of investigation. Hence, for the first time, this project investigates how conspiracy theories are constructed as social reality with and through language. It aims to make a necessary complementation to previous research on conspiracy theories and, by focusing on the hitherto excluded language aspect, to contribute to an urgently needed, more comprehensive understanding of conspiracy theories. Therefore, the rhetorical strategies, specific linguistic means and practices that are characteristic of talking about alleged conspiracies are placed at the center of examination, as they contribute to the plausibility of conspiracy theories. Our database consists of a comprehensive corpus of various conspiracy theories that are disseminated in German-speaking countries in particular via social media texts. Using quantitative and qualitative corpus studies, the project covers, inter alia, lexical units (vocabulary, word formation, phraseology), grammatical constructions, metaphors, topoi, metapragmatic processes, and multimodal aspects. By focusing on non-traditional media, the project additionally contributes to discourse linguistics beyond the generic accepted public knowledge. In cooperation with the service center eSciences at Trier University and supported by the digital research environment FuD, the data are pre-processed, annotated, evaluated and archived for the long term. Broadly, the project contributes to a better understanding of how language is used in conspiracy theories in order to create beliefs. Furthermore, the project includes plans for public outreach and engagement with the general public (e.g. workshops and educational work at schools).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants