I have seen many people on the Internet from America sharing the sign “Stop Asian Hate”.
I know they mean “Stop hate against Asian people”, but why don't they say “Stop anti-Asian hate”?
I also see people saying “Stop white terrorism”, which means “stop terrorism by white people”, so why does “Stop Asian hate” has the opposite meaning?
I do not understand the grammar here, but I am not a native speaker.
Best Answer
The difference between "Stop Asian hate" and "Stop white terrorism" isn't one of grammar, it's one of semantics.
"Stop Asian hate" and "Stop white terrorism" have the same basic grammatical structure: "(imperative verb) (noun phrase)". That is, there's a verb directing the reader to do something ("stop") and then a noun phrase describing the thing to stop.
Even the noun phrase has the same grammatical structure: "(noun adjunct) (noun)". That is, there's the thing that you want to stop (hate/terrorism) and that's preceded by a descriptor for which specific type of that thing you want to stop. Both of those descriptors are nouns for groups of people, used like an adjective. (There's some potential ambiguity in how you view "white", but I think it's clearest if you think of it as a nominalized adjective subsequently used as a noun adjunct - that is, an adjective turned into a noun turned into an adjective.)
It's in that noun adjunct where the ambiguity lies. Grammatically, the noun adjunct forms a connection between the nouns, but the grammar doesn't specify the type - that is, grammar itself doesn't say if "Asian hate" should be interpreted as "hate towards Asians" or "hate from Asians" - that distinction is entirely found in the semantics.
This sort of contextual ambiguity for noun adjuncts is common in English. Consider "chicken feed" and "chicken soup". One is food for chickens, and one is food made from chickens. Or "fuel oil" versus "corn oil". One is a specific type of oil used as fuel, one is oil made from corn. (Or "baby oil", which is an oil to be used on babies, and not an oil made from babies, despite the theoretical possibility of the latter.) There's nothing grammatically different, the difference is all in the contextual meaning.