ASIS&T Annual Meeting 2018 753 Visual Presentations Rhetoric of Oppression – Linguistic Maps and Semantic Classifications Denise A. D. Bedford, Ph.D. Georgetown University, USA, db233@georgetown.edu Stephanie Bennett Georgetown University, USA, sab360@georgetown.edu Kevin Bishop Georgetown University, USA, kb1001@georgetown.edu Conor Cuse Georgetown University, USA, ccc84@georgetown.edu Lin Ding Georgetown University, USA, ld703@georgetown.edu Sean Gabaree Georgetown University, USA, sg1287@georgetown.edu Yifei Ji Georgetown University, USA, yj143@georgetown.edu Rebecca Kielty Georgetown University, USA, rck40@georgetown.edu Rima Mandwee Georgetown University, USA, rm1724@georgetown.edu Katie Mikalnik Georgetown University, USA, km594@georgetown.edu Katherine Oberkircher Georgetown University, USA, klo39@georgetown.edu Mihika Sapru Georgetown University, USA, ms4347@georgetown.edu Sarah Shanoudy Georgetown University, USA, ss4010@georgetown.edu Shuyang Wang Georgetown University, USA, sw903@georgetown.edu Samantha Whalen Georgetown University, USA, sew117@georgetown.edu ABSTRACT Language gives rise to consciousness and consciousness gives rise to reality. In 2018 we are more aware of the existence of oppressive language than we have been in recent decades, perhaps in part due to the reach of social media and the 24/7 coverage of events and discourse in the public space. In reality, oppressive language has been with us for centuries. This poster represents an effort to map and document the characteristics of the rhetoric of war, economic, cultural, ethnic, racial, and gender oppression, social alienation, extremism, anti-im- migration, and political language. The poster presents the results a map of rhetorical elements, describes its application to the language of the ten areas noted above, and the model’s translation into an early stage semantic profile for detection of oppressive language in written text or transcribed speech. The poster will also include test results generated prior to the ASIST Conference. KEYWORDS Rhetoric, semantic profiles, oppressive language, hate language, linguistic analysis INTRODUCTION Language gives rise to consciousness and consciousness gives rise to reality. In 2018 we are more aware of the existence of oppressive language than we have been in recent decades, perhaps in part due to the deliberate use of social media to target and divide, and the 24/7 coverage of events and discourse in the public space. In reality, oppressive language has been with us for centuries (Baker-Shenk, 1986; Bosmajian, 1974; Chomsky, 1992; Chomsky, 2006; Halliday Matthiessen and Yang, 1999; Reisigl and Wodak, 2005). It permeates the way we think and the way we talk. This poster represents the work of a class of students to map and document the fundamental characteristics and nature of oppressive rhetoric, including the rheto-ic of war pre- and post-9/11 (Lakoff, 2000), economic oppression (Shildrick and MacDonald, 2013), cultural and ethnical oppression (Kaplan, 2009; Reisigl and Wodak, 2005), racial oppression (Wetherall and Potter, 1992), gender oppression (Mills and Melany, 2011), social alienation (Harris, 1983; Levinson, 1980), extremism (O’Regan and Betzel, 2015), antiimmigration (Cunnningham-Parmeter, 2010), and politics (Riggins, 1997). We are more aware of the existence of oppressive language today than we have been in recent decades, perhaps in part due to the reach of social media and the 24/7 coverage of events and discourse in the public space. METHODOLOGY While there is a rich body of research on discourse analysis, the language of oppression and targeted research on each of these topics, there is no comprehensive conceptual model. By nature, the bulk of the research is qualitative in nature and often subjective in its interpretation. There is little quantitative or objective research on the topic. The research team’s goal was to