ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an initial orientation on counterspeech research from a linguistic perspective, with the aim to describe counterspeech as a communicative practice for invectivity management. Derived from a conceptual and usage history of the English term “counterspeech” and its German equivalent Gegenrede, this chapter argues the necessity of an interactional perspective on the subject matter. Relying on corpus linguistic evaluations and microanalytical methods from (digital) interactional linguistics, the chapter illustrates how counterspeech in multistep interactions can alter positions. By repeatedly establishing relations of opposition or contrast to invective utterances at various linguistic levels, counterspeech practices make the present invectivity visible and thus workable. This principle is exemplified in the Twitter case study Otto vs. Paula. The examination of counterspeech as an interaction necessitates an understanding of counter-conversations as a cooperative endeavor involving at least two participants. When discussing counterspeech and hate speech, the task involves responding to perceived racist remarks and mitigating their impact. This complex task requires a variety of linguistic tools and communicative strategies that can be employed depending on their situational and media context, significantly influenced by the previous interaction history.
