PL
The article formulates the need for studying the problem of hate speech, which is a form of discrimination, in sociolinguistics. The author describes the experience of studying discrimination in Western science (interdisciplinary approach) as well as aspects of formulating the notion in international and Ukrainian legislation. The paper also tracks the linguistic principles involved in examining the problem. The prospects for further research consist in the unifi cation of category content and the meanings of the terms discrimination, discourse discrimination and hate speech in sociolinguistics with the purpose of applying these categories as tools for analysing the language situation in Ukraine.