Perceptions of Palestine: The View from Large Linguistic Datasets

Abstract

Cultural norms and trends are often reflected in patterns of language use. This article explores cultural perceptions of Palestine and Palestinians in the English-speaking world, through two analyses of large linguistic datasets. The first analysis seeks to uncover current conceptions of participants in the Israel-Palestine conflict, by identifying words that are distinctively associated with those participants in modern English usage. The second analysis asks what historical-cultural changes led to these current conceptions. A general theme that emerges from these analyses is that a cultural shift appears to have occurred recently in the English-speaking world, marked by greater awareness of Palestinian perspectives on the conflict. Possible causes for such a cultural shift are also explored.

• language use
• framing
• Google
• Israel-Palestine conflict
• cultural shift

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Terry Regier

Terry Regier is a professor of linguistics and cognitive science at the University of California, Berkeley.