Debating discrimination: Transphobic and transfeindlich in English and German news and Twitter discourse

The words transphobic and transfeindlich can be considered socio-political keywords in current English and German speaking public discourse around issues of gender and sexuality. They have recently increased in usage frequency and their semantics and pragmatics are actively contested. In the first part of this study, I describe changes in usage frequency of these words in news discourse. In the second part, I investigate strategies used in semantic and discursive struggles around these words in semi-public discourse on Twitter, based on frequent lexicogrammatical patterns. The results show that the keywords are often used in negative evaluative context, in acts of exemplification and in different forms of denial. Furthermore, some of the lexicogrammatical patterns are often used metapragmatically and in acts of double-voicing as a means of positioning.