An Indexical Theory of Racial Pejoratives

Scott, Michael; Stevens, Graham

doi:10.1111/phib.12156

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The second approach is the (racial) pejoratives as indexicals written by Scott and Stevens (2019). 12 According to this approach, racial pejoratives function like indexical terms; that is, they are context-dependent.…”

Section: The Indexical Semantic Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Direct Reference Theory of Pejoratives in Hate Speech

Sirichan¹

2021

Philosophia

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The use of language in hate speech is understandably offensive. Though words do not kill, they convey an alarming message that can harm the victim. To understand how words can harm, it is necessary to understand the nature of the meaning of pejoratives or slurs that are used in hate speech. Pejoratives are undeniably offensive. However, they are puzzling as they can be used in two directions, namely, the offensive power preservation and the offensive power destruction. This paper proposes that the direct reference theory of pejoratives can solve the puzzle. A characterization of pejoratives is that it has the property of immediacy. They refer directly to the object of speech. Grounding on a shared context, any descriptions are unnecessary for understanding the offensive message of pejoratives. In this sense, pejoratives have indexical content as it is context-sensitive. The kind of indexical content that pertains to pejoratives is action-oriented. However, its object of reference is empty. In discussing pejoratives that are used in hate speech, some examples of Thai slurs are shown.

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Section: The Indexical Semantic Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…11. See some other criticism of Hom's theory, e.g., Michael Scott andGraham Stevens (2019), Christina Corredor (2014).…”

Section: The Direct Reference Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Direct Reference Theory of Pejoratives in Hate Speech

Sirichan¹

2021

Philosophia

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“…15 I am not proposing that the account presented in this paper should be or will be applied to slurs (ethnic, gendered, etc.). The literature on slurs is vast and cannot be done justice here, for discussion of slurs see: Cepollaro (2020), Jeshion (2013a, b), Nunberg (2018), Popa-Wyatt and Wyatt (2018), Scott and Stevens (2019), Sosa (2018), Cepollaro and Zeman (2020).…”

Section: Gutzmann's Expressive-contextualismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jeremy is a... Expressive-relativism and expressives in predicative positions

Berškytė

2021

Synthese

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Expressives are words that convey speakers’ attitudes towards a particular object or situation. Consider two examples: Attributive: That f**khead Jeremy forgot the turkey. Predicative: Jeremy is a f**khead. In both examples the word f**khead communicates some expressive content - the negative attitude of the speaker. However, only in Predicative does it appear to contribute to the truth-conditional content. The task is to explain the semantics of the word f**khead when it seemingly behaves wildly differently in different syntactic positions. In this paper I consider several good candidates for dealing with f**khead occurring in Predicative position: Expressivist and Descriptive approaches that treat f**khead in Predicative as purely descriptive; and Expressive-Contextualism that treats Predicative as communicating to both expressive and descriptive dimensions. I show that none of the options fully capture the meaning of f**khead. Treating Predicative as purely descriptive leaves out the highly important expressive element, whilst Contextualist semantics does not seem as a suitable descriptive theory for expressives. I finally present a novel hybrid account that combines Expressivist semantics with Relativism. I call this view Expressive-Relativism. I show that by adopting Expressive-Relativism we can not only explain the relationship of f**khead in Attributive and Predicative, but also give a suitable descriptive theory that captures the truth-conditions of Predicative.

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“…Scott and Stevens 2019); other examples of echoic uses of slurs and of expressives more generally are discussed inStevens and Duckett (2019).there are other cases which make it perfectly clear that indexicals can be shifted by open quotation. Indeed we saw one above from Récanati, which I repeat here: o Stop that John!…”

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confidence: 98%

Metalinguistic Monstrosity and Displaced Communications

Stevens¹

2022

Dialectica

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David Kaplan's semantic theory for indexicals yields a distinct logic for indexical languages that generates contingent a priori truths. These special truths of the logic of indexicals include examples like "I am here now", an utterance of which expresses a contingent state of affairs and yet which, according to Kaplan, cannot fail to be true when it is uttered. This claim is threatened by the problem of displaced communications: answerphone messages, for example, seem to facilitate true instances of the negation of this supposed logical truth as they allow the agent of the message to no longer be at the location of the message when it is encountered by an audience. Many such displaced communications can be identified in everyday natural language uses of indexicals. Recent discussion has suggested that Kaplan's error is to be overly restrictive in the possible contexts of utterance his semantic theory recognizes, as he fails to acknowledge the possibility of utterances that occur at a context distinct from that in which they are constructed. I reject this diagnosis and defend Kaplan's semantic theory. Displaced communications, I argue, are best understood as resulting from a pragmatically introduced metalinguistic context-shifting operation and hence do not demand revision of Kaplan's semantic theory. I provide an analysis of the pragmatic process underlying this operation and make the case for its merits over those of rival accounts of displaced communications.

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An Indexical Theory of Racial Pejoratives

Cited by 6 publications

References 18 publications

The Direct Reference Theory of Pejoratives in Hate Speech

The Direct Reference Theory of Pejoratives in Hate Speech

Jeremy is a... Expressive-relativism and expressives in predicative positions

Metalinguistic Monstrosity and Displaced Communications

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