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Cited by 1Cultural and political discourse analysisComputational and Text Analysis MethodsPopulism, Right-Wing Movements

Linguistic Polarization in Minority Representation: Analyzing Parliamentary Speeches in Germany and the UK (1980–2021)

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Lee, Younghyun, Piñeyrúa, Florencia, Czymara, Christian S., Weber, Maximilian·2026·Computational Social Sciences
DOI 10.1007/978-3-032-01373-6_7
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Abstract

Abstract Political polarization shapes how minority issues are discussed in public and parliamentary discourse, with implications for representation and policy. We examine the representation of migration and sexual minorities in all parliamentary speeches across Germany and the United Kingdom from 1980 to 2021. In particular, we ask: (1) How parties in both countries contributed to shifts in the overall salience of the two minority issues, (2) how language use differs between party groups and the two minority issues ( average linguistic differences ), and (3) how has this evolved over time ( linguistic polarization ). To this end, we employ natural language processing techniques on all political speeches in both parliaments during this period and roughly 143,000 speech parts in total. The results show that speeches on both issues increased notably over time for all parties in both countries. Moreover, relative frequency analyses reveal that linguistic polarization concerning the terminology used by political parties has intensified over the years. In both countries, right-leaning parties emphasized economic and security aspects more when discussing migration, whereas left-leaning parties focused more on normative and rights-based issues. Regarding sexual minorities, the rhetoric of left parties more often included terms relating to equality or discrimination, while right parties more often referred to aspects of marriage and morals. In sum, our research shows that left and right parties strongly differ in their language use when debating minorities and that linguistic polarization intensifies over time.

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Lee, Y., Piñeyrúa, F., Czymara, C. S., & Weber, M.
Affiliations
  • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
  • Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (AR)
  • Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NL)
  • Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (DE)
Corresponding author
Lee, Younghyun
ORCID
Venue
Computational Social Sciences
Publisher
Springer Nature Switzerland
Published
2026
Pages
155-184
ISSN
  • 2509-9574 (ISSN-L)
  • 2509-9582
DOI
10.1007/978-3-032-01373-6_7
OpenAlex
W7128295666
Cited by
0
References
1
FWCI
0.00
Type
book chapter
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
Computational social sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Cultural and political discourse analysis
  • Social Sciences › General Social Sciences › Computational and Text Analysis Methods
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Populism, Right-Wing Movements
Keywords
political polarization, minority representation, migration, sexual minorities, parliamentary speeches, political rhetoric, party ideology, left-right differences, Germany, United Kingdom

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