Lecture: A Puzzle about the Extension of Slurs

Defending a Conventional Implicature Approach

This talk is a report of my BA thesis about the meaning dimensions of slurs.
I dealt with novel data that suggest that possible targets of a slur are not always equivalent to the set of the derogated group, thereby contrasting with current theories.

I will discuss three examples where the extension of a slur is:

(i) the set of the derogated group
(ii) people that have at least one stereotypical property of the derogated group (according to the speaker)
(iii) a combination of both

The purpose of this talk is to investigate the mechanisms involved in the predication of a slur and to introduce a theory that allows for their varying extensions.
Additionally, the theory should also explain how slurs behave under negation, as a common problem in the study of slurs is to account for their hyper-projection; there is rarely a context where a slur is not offensive.
To achieve this, I compare existing theories by analysing where they place the derogative content (in the literal content or via a non-truth-conditional mechanism) and if they can account for the projection behaviour (why and how do slurs remain derogative under negation?).

Referring to Potts (2015) for the analysis of implicatures and Simons et al. (2010) for insight on projection, I found that an account that combines a modified conventional implicature approach (Camp 2018) with a prototype-based characterisation (Croom 2015, Foster 2020) of the implicated content represents slurs the most accurately.

Literature:
Camp, Elisabeth. 2018. A dual act analysis of slurs. 𝘉𝘢𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴: 𝘗𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘴 1.
Cepollaro, Bianca. 2015. In defence of a presuppositional account of slurs. 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 52. 36-45.
Croom, Adam M. 2015. The semantics of slurs: a refutation of coreferentialism. 𝘈𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘥 (2). 30-38.
Foster, Jennifer. 2020. Beyond "neutral counterparts": towards an overlap theory of derogatory terms.
Hom, Christopher. 2012. A puzzle about pejoratives. 𝘗𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘴 159(3). 383-405.
Neufeld, Eleonore. 2019. An essentialist theory of the meaning of slurs. 𝘗𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴' 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘵 19 (35).
Nunberg, Geoffrey. 2018. The social life of slurs. 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘴. 237-293.
Potts, Christopher. 2015. Presupposition and implicature. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘰𝘳𝘺 2. 168-202.
Simons, Mandy, Judith Tonhauser, David Beaver & Craige Roberts. 2010. What projects and why. In 𝘚𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘰𝘳𝘺, vol. 20, 309-327.

Info

Day: 2021-11-18
Start time: 14:00
Duration: 00:30
Room: 🧉
Track: Theoretical Linguistics
Language: en

Schedule StuTS 70