Queering Language: Tracing the Evolving Significance of “Queer” In Contemporary Discourse

In recent years, the evolving semantics of the term <i>queer</i> has sparked debates within linguistics, identity studies, and social discourse. "Queer" has become part of what Cassie Herbert describes as a <i>reclamation project: a</i> continuing, uneven endeavor in which individuals engage in revaluing stigmatized terms, particularly within academic and activist spaces. Nevertheless, its meaning remains fluid and deeply contested. Our study conducts a corpus-based case study that applies critical discourse analysis, queer theory and natural language processing (NLP) software to examine the historical and contemporary usage of <i>queer</i> in three different corpora (the <i>English Historical Book Collection</i> corpus; the <i>British National Corpus</i> (2014), and the <i>English Broadsheet Newspaper</i> (SiBol) corpus). The main objective is to explore the extent to which <i>queer</i> has undergone semantic shifts, particularly in relation to its reappropriation and evolving sociopolitical meanings. Our results reveal that that <i>queer</i> tends to retain pejorative associations when used as a noun. Although this study provides key insights into queer linguistics, its findings are limited by the availability of corpus data. Future research should incorporate larger and more diverse datasets, to capture the full complexity of the term <i>queer</i> across global contexts. Ultimately, our research contributes to the ongoing discussion on language, identity, and power by demonstrating how <i>queer</i> continues to evolve as a site of contestation and resistance.