<i>Greenwashing, Pinkwashing, Whitewashing</i> … der kritische Metasprachdiskurs um X-<i>washing</i>

The article focuses on the critical meta-linguistic discourse on x-washing in the newspaper and magazine corpus of the German Reference Corpus (DeReko) thus demonstrating the added value of a corpus-based quantitative-qualitative analysis for discourse linguistic studies. This approach makes it possible to trace the development of the discourse-constitutive x-washing pattern since the 1990s. It becomes clear that the pattern has increased in frequency and productivity in recent years, as shown by the variety of x-washing terms used primarily in the quality media by and for the educated classes. X-washing terms range from established, lexicographically recorded terms (green-, sports- or pinkwashing), which in turn form further composites, to rare ad hoc formations (youth-, zero-, diversitywashing), which open up new perspectives in critical meta-linguistic discourse. The individual x-washing terms refer to different discursive events and form their own discourse strands, but are all based on the common pattern of argumentation, namely criticism of the economic and political communication of sustainability and the staging of groups of people (e.g. LGBTQIA*, youth) or socially relevant values (environmental protection, ethical intentions or gender equality). Furthermore, the co-occurrence analysis was used to identify the most important agents who criticise self-portrayed misleading or false sustainability claims, as well as agents who engage in x-washing. Frequent co-occurrence partners moreover reveal the pejoratively critical connotation of x-washing and its meta-linguistic use. In the newspaper and magazine corpus, a variety of references to language and language use could be identified, which can be differentiated with regard to reference objects and hierarchy.