25 results on '"slurs"'
Search Results
2. Exploring the Use of South African Ethnic and Racial Slurs on Social Media.
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Mbowa, Sonia
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RACISM in language , *DISCRIMINATORY language , *ONLINE social networks , *ETHNICITY , *RACE identity - Abstract
In this paper, I use discourse analysis as a framework to examine Facebook posts and understand how South African ethnic and racial slurs are used and responded to on social media platforms. I illustrate how language in general and slurs in particular work as tools for the negotiation, (re)production, (re)circulation and maintenance of particular ethnic and racial identities and representations. My findings focus on two interrelated aspects of the data: the first concerns the discursive features of the initial posts and the second relates to subsequent responses to the posts. The close examination of initial posts reveals the ways in which the original posters (OPs) position themselves and those they refer to using these slurs. Social media interlocutors recognise the words "kaffir", "coolie", "Hottentot" and "makwerekwere" as strongly tied to power and racial/ethnic identity and deliberately use them to provoke controversial debates and to construct "us vs. them" scenarios. The significance of the study is twofold: firstly, it contributes to literature that highlights the role of social media platforms as vehicles for racial and ethnic hate speech. Secondly, it underlines the complexities of race and ethnic relations in the country by highlighting the need for robust discussions around the way South Africans view themselves in comparison to out-group members, including other Africans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
3. Really Expressive Presuppositions and How to Block Them.
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Marques, Teresa and García-Carpintero, Manuel
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RACISM in language , *DISCRIMINATORY language , *ACCOUNTING - Abstract
Kaplan (1999) argued that a different dimension of expressive meaning ("use-conditional", as opposed to truth-conditional) is required to characterize the meaning of pejoratives, including slurs and racial epithets. Elaborating on this, writers have argued that the expressive meaning of pejoratives and slurs is either a conventional implicature (Potts 2007) or a presupposition (Macià 2002 and 2014 , Schlenker 2007 , Cepollaro and Stojanovic 2016). Here the authors argue that an expressive presuppositional theory accounts well for the data, but that expressive presuppositions are not just propositions to be added to a common ground. They hold that expressives, including pejoratives and slurs, make requirements on a contextual record governed by sui generis norms specific to affective attitudes and their expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
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4. THE COMPATIBILITY BETWEEN EXPRESSIVE ELEMENTS: KINSHIP TERMS, PRONOUNS, AND RACIAL SLURS IN VIETNAMESE.
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Huynh, Juliet and Suwon Yoon
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PRONOUNS (Grammar) ,RACISM in language ,VIETNAMESE language - Abstract
The present study investigates the Compatibility Condition (CC) for multiple expressive elements in Vietnamese. We identify Vietnamese kinship terms, pronouns, and racial slurs as expressives (i.e. conventional implicature (Potts 2005)), where different expressive items interact. We find that there are co-occurrences of expressives with different attitudes (e.g. weak/strong negative) and with expressive elements that have honorific and antihonorific properties. Under controlled occurrences, we examine what CC is and how it is measured. We propose the CC model and the CC index for occurrences of Vietnamese emotive-expressives and honorific-expressives. Furthermore, the CC may be intentionally flouted as a repair strategy. Finally, we show that emotion and honorific dimensions operate interdependently or autonomously and provide support for autonomy. The implication found is that interaction exists among various Vietnamese expressives, necessitating the compatibility constraint, while supporting multidimensionality (Potts 2005 et seq.), with at least two expressive dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
5. Slurs, roles and power.
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Popa-Wyatt, Mihaela and Wyatt, Jeremy L.
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DISCRIMINATORY language , *RACISM in language , *HATE speech , *LIBEL & slander , *HATE crimes , *INCITEMENT to violence , *CROSS burning - Abstract
Slurring is a kind of hate speech that has various effects. Notable among these is variable offence. Slurs vary in offence across words, uses, and the reactions of audience members. Patterns of offence aren’t adequately explained by current theories. We propose an explanation based on the unjust power imbalance that a slur seeks to achieve. Our starting observation is that in discourse participants take on discourse roles. These are typically inherited from social roles, but only exist during a discourse. A slurring act is a speech-act that alters the discourse roles of the target and speaker. By assigning discourse roles the speaker unjustly changes the power balance in the dialogue. This has a variety of effects on the target and audience. We show how these notions explain all three types of offence variation. We also briefly sketch how a role and power theory can help explain silencing and appropriation. Explanatory power lies in the fact that offence is correlated with the perceived unjustness of the power imbalance created. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
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6. Challenge Your Stigma: How to Reframe and Revalue Negative Stereotypes and Slurs.
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Wang, Cynthia S., Whitson, Jennifer A., Anicich, Eric M., Kray, Laura J., and Galinsky, Adam D.
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SOCIAL stigma , *RACISM in language , *REFRAMING (Psychotherapy) - Abstract
Stigma devalues individuals and groups, producing social and economic disadvantages through two distinct but reinforcing processes: direct discrimination (e.g., a White person not hiring a Black person based on race) and stigma internalization (e.g., women believing men are more qualified for leadership positions). We review strategies that individuals can use to not only cope with but also challenge their stigma. We discuss how attempts to escape stigma can be effective at the individual level but may leave the stigma itself unchanged or even reinforced. We then identify two ways individuals can reappropriate and take ownership of their stigma to weaken it: reframing and self-labeling. Reframing highlights stereotypic characteristics as assets rather than liabilities--for example, framing stereotypically feminine traits (e.g., social intelligence) as essential for effective negotiations or leadership. Self-labeling involves referring to oneself with a group slur. We discuss ways to utilize these reappropriation strategies as well as how to handle potential pitfalls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2017
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7. Gendered Slurs.
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Ashwell, Lauren
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RACISM in language , *PEJORATION (Linguistics) , *LANGUAGE & languages , *SEMANTICS , *PRAGMATICS , *RACE discrimination , *ETHICS - Abstract
Slurring language has had a lot of recent interest, but the focus has been almost exclusively on racial slurs. Gendered pejoratives, on the other hand—terms like "slut," "bitch," or "sissy"—do not fit into existing accounts of slurring terms, as these accounts require the existence of neutral correlates, which, I argue, these gendered pejoratives lack. Rather than showing that these terms are not slurs, I argue that this challenges the assumption that slurs must have neutral correlates, and so that a new approach to thinking about the meaning of slurring terms is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2016
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8. Taboo word fluency and knowledge of slurs and general pejoratives: deconstructing the poverty-of-vocabulary myth.
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Jay, Kristin L. and Jay, Timothy B.
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TABOO , *VOCABULARY , *FLUENCY (Language learning) , *RACISM in language , *POVERTY , *COLLOQUIAL language , *LECTURERS - Abstract
A folk assumption about colloquial speech is that taboo words are used because speakers cannot find better words with which to express themselves: because speakers lack vocabulary. A competing possibility is that fluency is fluency regardless of subject matter—that there is no reason to propose a difference in lexicon size and ease of access for taboo as opposed to emotionally-neutral words. In order to test these hypotheses, we compared general verbal fluency via the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT) with taboo word fluency and animal word fluency in spoken and written formats. Both formats produced positive correlations between COWAT fluency, animal fluency, and taboo word fluency, supporting the fluency-is-fluency hypothesis. In each study, a set of 10 taboo words accounted for 55–60% of all taboo word data. Expressives were generated at higher rates than slurs. There was little sex-related variability in taboo word generation, and, consistent with findings that do not show a sex difference in taboo lexicon size, no overall sex difference in taboo word generation was obtained. Taboo fluency was positively correlated with the Big Five personality traits neuroticism and openness and negatively correlated with agreeableness and conscientiousness. Overall the findings suggest that, with the exception of female-sex-related slurs, taboo expressives and general pejoratives comprise the core of the category of taboo words while slurs tend to occupy the periphery, and the ability to generate taboo language is not an index of overall language poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
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9. In defence of a presuppositional account of slurs.
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Cepollaro, Bianca
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PRESUPPOSITION (Logic) , *RACISM in language , *PHILOSOPHERS , *LINGUISTS , *EXPRESSIVE behavior , *SEXUAL orientation , *HATE speech - Abstract
In the last 15 years philosophers and linguists have turned their attention to slurs: derogatory expressions that target certain groups on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality and so on. This interest is due to the fact that, on the one hand, slurs possess puzzling linguistic properties; on the other hand, the questions they pose are related to other crucial issues, such as the descriptivism/expressivism divide, the semantics/pragmatics divide and, generally speaking, the theory of meaning. Despite these recent investigations about pejoratives, there is no widely accepted explanation of slurs: in my paper I consider the intuitions we have about slurs and I assess the difficulties that the main theories encounter in explaining how these terms work in order to identify the phenomena that a satisfactory account of slurs needs to explain. Then, I focus on the pragmatic theories that deal with the notions of conventional implicature and pragmatic presupposition: I assess the objections that have been raised and I propose two ways of defending the presuppositional account, taking into consideration the notion of cancellability. I will claim that the reason why most pragmatic strategies seem to fail to account for slurs is that they assume a rigid divide between conventional implicatures and presuppositions that should not be taken for granted. Reconsidering the relationship between these two notions gives a hint about how a pragmatic account of slurs should look like. Finally, I assess the problem of which presupposition slurs in fact trigger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2015
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10. “Structural differentiation and the poetics of violence shaping Barack Obama's presidency: a study in personhood, literacy, and the improvisation of African–American publics”.
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Jackson, Jennifer
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POETICS , *VIOLENCE , *PERSONALITY (Theory of knowledge) , *LITERACY , *CITIZENSHIP , *RACISM in language , *AFRICAN Americans - Abstract
This paper follows the social role of the United States' logocratic history of citizenship and literacy through education brought to bear as an ideological scaffolding of ‘patriotism’ in the service of a new, growing, and overt racial poetics of violence against President Barack Obama and, as consequence, the constraints and possibilities to political black publics. This semiotic circulates beyond the ‘fringe’ and into the interaction of today's politicians, conservative think tanks, mass media pundits, and their consortia of elite special interest groups, lobbies, and markets. Its uptake and recirculation, particularly as massive mediatized everyday language, has brought into relief a narrating register of racial belonging hearkening from the social, political, and legal history of structural subjugation to minorities and black people in the United States since the founding words of its inception. Following the slurs and other tropes of racist talk, images, and memes, the study then examines how these structural histories inform and are used to naturalize an exclusionary rhetoric of violence in an immutable master narrative structuring a shared moral and democratic order. And, it looks to the descriptive violence as well as calls for action, all targeted at President Barack Obama's rupture to this moral order, limiting any arrangements of black collective political agency into improvisational contexts, at best. It follows such differentiation and regulation at two structuring levels: 1) the institutionalization of citizenship; and, 2) civic literacy through formal education of African–Americans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
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11. Precarious projects: the performative structure of reclamation.
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Herbert, Cassie
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SOCIAL injustice , *RACISM in language , *SUBORDINATE constructions , *OPPRESSION , *SPEECH acts (Linguistics) - Abstract
Derogatory terms can be powerful mechanisms of subordination, while re-appropriating these terms can be a strategy to fight back against social injustice. I argue that projects seeking to reclaim slurs have a performative structure that raises particular hazards. Whereas more familiar forms of protest may fail to bring about their intended result, attempts to re-appropriate slurs can fail to be understood as transgressive acts at all. When attempts at reclamation fail, their force is distorted; context and convention lead the hearer to give uptake to the speech act as a traditional deployment of the slur. The force of this traditional use is to validate and re-entrench the very norms the act was intended to subvert. This is the precarious structure of reclamation projects: when successful, reclamation is the subversion of powerful mechanisms of oppression, but when unsuccessful, the act has the ironic force of constituting mechanisms of oppression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
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12. “Two-faced -isms: racism at work and how race discourse shapes classtalk and gendertalk.”.
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Embrick, David G. and Henricks, Kasey
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RACISM in language , *DISCOURSE , *WORK environment , *TWO-Face (Fictional character) , *STEREOTYPES , *IDEOLOGY - Abstract
In this paper, we relied on a mixed-methods approach to examine the contextual fluidities and nuances of racial discourse in a southwestern baked-goods workplace. Specifically, we extend upon previous findings on how stereotypes and slurs are racially unequal in a workplace setting, in order to investigate what is uniquely racist about the deployment of stereotypes and slurs and how racism shapes gendered and classed dimensions of these terms. Further, we empirically demonstrate how gender and class can be constructed along lines of racial ideology at micro-levels of interaction. Our argument is that racetalk does not operate independently or in isolation from other discourses like gendertalk and classtalk. Instead, racist comments are often expressed alongside classist and sexist comments by people, who simultaneously occupy multiple racial, class, and gender locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
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13. Can pejorative terms ever lead to positive social consequences? The case of SlutWalk.
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Gaucher, Danielle, Hunt, Brianna, and Sinclair, Lisa
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PEJORATION (Linguistics) , *SOCIAL impact , *SLUTWALK movement , *SOCIAL justice , *RAPE , *RACISM in language , *WOMEN'S empowerment - Abstract
Critics of SlutWalk social movements claim that the term slut can never be empowering and that it is inherently derogatory. However, recent research suggests that the in-group can re-appropriate slurs successfully (e.g., Croom, 2013, Galinsky et al., 2013). In two experiments, we investigated whether the typically pejorative term slut can lead to positive social consequences when used in the context of a social justice movement. We exposed participants to the term slut and systematically varied the sex of the speaker (Study 1) and the context in which the slur was used (Studies 1 and 2). Women were less likely to endorse common rape myths after being exposed to slut in a supportive (i.e., SlutWalk march) relative to a nondescript context (i.e., yelled in the street), regardless of the sex of speaker (Study 1), and even when compared to baseline (i.e., absence of any mention of the term; Study 2). Moreover, within a supportive march context the use of the slur slut did not significantly lower women's feelings of empowerment relative to a slur-free women's march (Study 2). Taken together, results demonstrate that the slur slut is not inherently derogatory and can be re-appropriated under supportive march contexts. Implications for language re-appropriation in social demonstrations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2015
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14. Slurs, insults, (backhanded) compliments and other strategic facework moves.
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Archer, Dawn
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RACISM in language , *INVECTIVE , *COMPLIMENTS , *LECTURERS , *PRAGMATICS - Abstract
Slurs such as nigger tend to function as “disparaging remarks”: that is, they are an attempt by speakers (S) to deliberately deprecate a target – or targets (T) – in some way ( Croom, 2011 ). Accordingly, they can be seen to share the same pragmatic space as other verbally aggressive acts such as insults, put-downs, snubs and backhanded compliments (Jucker and Taavitsainen, 2000). Mention of backhanded compliments, in turn, serves as a useful reminder that compliments can be seen as representing the positive end of a larger pragmatic space relating to the speaker's evaluation of the addressee, with slurs and insults representing the negative end (Taavitsainen and Jucker, 2008) and back-handed compliments, a positive/negative blend. In this paper, I introduce a facework scale that serves to capture face-enhancing and face-threatening strategies (and combinations thereof). It can thus explain various uses of terms such as nigger : for example, its use in order to slur or negatively frame another (Croom, 2011); its use (by in-group members) to express affection for or approval of another (Smitherman, 2006); and unsuccessful cases of (re-)appropriation (Bianchi, 2014) such that an utterance meant to build camaraderie between S and T ultimately serves to offend T. The facework scale can also explain additional facework moves, such as S's use of strategic facework strategies which afford them some plausibility deniability (Archer, 2011; Leech, 1983). Although paradigmatic slurs are not likely to be (strategically) denied by S, given their overt use in insulting, injuring, threatening the face of, or otherwise imposing a negative identity on T (Croom, 2013: 178), facework which is strategically ambivalent in some way(s) can be an effective means of S manipulating others' views of T without explicitly “doing” impoliteness (Archer, 2011). This work thus contributes to the field of im/politeness research as well as to the growing body of (pragmatic) research focussing on slurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
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15. Slurs, stereotypes, and in-equality: a critical review of “How Epithets and Stereotypes are Racially Unequal”.
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Croom, Adam M.
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RACISM in language , *STEREOTYPES , *EQUALITY , *EPITHETS , *WORK environment , *ACQUISITION of data - Abstract
Are racial slurs always offensive and are racial stereotypes always negative? How, if at all, are racial slurs and stereotypes different and unequal for members of different races? Questions like these and others about slurs and stereotypes have been the focus of much research and hot debate lately, and in a recent article Embrick and Henricks (2013) aimed to address some of the aforementioned questions by investigating the use of racial slurs and stereotypes in the workplace. Embrick and Henricks (2013) drew upon the empirical data they collected at a baked goods company in the southwestern United States to argue that racial slurs and stereotypes function as symbolic resources that exclude minorities but not whites from opportunities or resources and that racial slurs and stereotypes are necessarily considered as negative or derogatory irrespective of their particular context of use (pp. 197–202). They thus proposed an account of slurs and stereotypes that supports the context-insensitive position of Fitten (1993) and Hedger (2013) yet challenges the context-sensitive position of Kennedy (2002) and Croom (2011). In this article I explicate the account of racial slurs and stereotypes provided by Embrick and Henricks (2013), outline 8 of their main claims, and then critically evaluate these claims by drawing upon recent empirical evidence on racial slurs (both in-group and out-group uses) and stereotypes (for both whites and blacks) to point out both strengths and weaknesses of their analysis. Implications of the present analysis for future work on slurs and stereotypes will also be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
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16. Slurs and lexical presumption.
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Lycan, William G.
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LEXICAL grammar , *RACISM in language , *PEJORATION (Linguistics) , *EXPRESSIVE behavior , *LITERATURE - Abstract
Grice's cryptic notion of “conventional implicature” has been developed in a number of different ways. This paper deploys the simplest version, Lycan's (1984) notion of “lexical presumption,” and argues that slurs and other pejorative expressions have normal truth-conditional content plus the most obvious extra implicatures. The paper then addresses and rebuts objections to “conventional implicature” accounts that have been made in the literature, particularly those which focus on non-offensive uses of slurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2015
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17. Diachronic variations of slurs and levels of derogation: on some regional, ethnic and racial slurs in Croatian.
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Čupković, Gordana
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HISTORICAL linguistics , *RACISM in language , *CROATS , *ATTITUDE (Psychology) , *SOCIAL groups , *VOCABULARY , *STEREOTYPES , *PARADIGM (Linguistics) - Abstract
This paper analyses individual Croatian slurs by which a negative attitude is expressed towards the identities of ethnic and other social groups. The theoretical framework is provided by several theoretical postulates which take slurs into consideration as words with full meaning, whose meaning is paradigmatically offensive despite their actual context, and thus place them in a separate category besides expressive and descriptive words rather them among expressive words alone (Croom), while stressing the importance of the role of the stereotype (Miščević) and considering contexts as aggregates of the ideologies and practices on which negative stereotypes are based (Hom). Taking into consideration the groups who are the target of these slurs and the speakers who use them, the slurs are classified into the following subtypes: racial, ethnic and regional. The negative and stereotypical characteristics which are, by means of idiomatic expressions, attributed to certain groups are divided as follows: speech, appearance, character, occupation, place and religion. The examples reveal that lexemes, when viewed diachronically, can change their semantic features (slurs can originate from either descriptive or expressive words, but can also become general offenses and are as such close to expressive words; on the other hand they can lose their negative characteristics). The analysis of the slurs shows how a model for the typology of slurs should necessarily include not only stereotypical categories and specific features but also the context, regardless of the paradigmatic full meaning of the slurs themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2015
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18. Slurs and the indexical field: the pejoration and reclaiming of favelado ‘slum-dweller’.
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Beaton, Mary Elizabeth and Washington, Hannah B.
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RACISM in language , *INDEXICALS (Semantics) , *LEXICAL grammar , *SOCIOLINGUISTICS , *CITY dwellers - Abstract
We consider the application of the indexical field (Eckert, 2008) and orders of indexicality (Silverstein, 2003) for the Brazilian Portuguese (BP) term favelado ‘slum-dweller’, which is synonymous to morador de favela ‘slum-dweller’ but has acquired negatively charged indexical values. Building on discussions of the (re)appropriation or reclaiming of slurs and other pejorized terms, such as the Cantonese word tongzhi (Wong, 2005, 2008), gay ( McConnell-Ginet, 2002 ), queer ( McConnell-Ginet, 2002 ), nigger (Jacobs, 2002; Camp, 2013; Croom, 2011; Washington, 2010; inter alia ), this study of favelado builds on Eckert's (2008) indexical field and creates a model of lexical indexicality that explains the simultaneous availability of both pejorative and powerful meanings. The positively-valenced reclaimed meanings are contextually limited and require simultaneous access to pejorative meanings. We propose that movement, or ‘sidestepping’ (Eckert, 2008), within the indexical field fuels movement between pejorative and ameliorated meanings. This paper highlights the importance of accounting for lexical indexical values in sociolinguistic study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
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19. Broken bridges: an exchange of slurs between African Americans and second generation Nigerians and the impact on identity formation among the second generation.
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Imoagene, Onoso
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RACISM in language , *IDENTITY (Psychology) , *AFRICAN Americans , *NIGERIANS , *ETHNIC groups , *SOCIALIZATION - Abstract
This article examines the use of slurs between members of different ethnic groups within the black racial category in the United States—specifically, the second generation of Nigerian ancestry and African Americans, as reported by the second generation of Nigerian ancestry. Studies on inter-group usage of slurs have mostly focused on the use of racial slurs targeting African Americans, the use of racial and ethnic slurs targeting non-black racial/ethnic groups, and the use of sexist slurs targeting people of different gender and sexual orientation. There has been limited analysis of use of slurs between ethnic groups within the black racial category in the United States. My investigation shows that slurs are part of the process of identity formation for the second generation. Also, the use of slurs between these two ethnic groups within the black category provides more evidence for Croom's (2010, 2011, and 2013) point that slurs do not always have to be used in a derogatory manner. It adds to what we know about the nonderogatory use of slurs by showing that a slur can be used as a socialization tool for young in-group members. I show that slurs can be appropriated by the group using the slur to target out-group members and that slurs can also be used within their own group to send a cautionary message to group members based on the derogatory meanings that are infused into the slur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
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20. Slurs against masculinity: masculine honor beliefs and men's reactions to slurs.
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Saucier, Donald A., Till, Derrick F., Miller, Stuart S., O'Dea, Conor J., and Andres, Emma
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RACISM in language , *MASCULINITY , *BELIEF & doubt , *AGGRESSION (Psychology) , *PROVOCATION (Behavior) , *INDIVIDUAL differences , *CROSS-cultural differences - Abstract
We examined the manifestation and effects of slurs against men and masculinity. In Study 1, we created a taxonomy of slurs against men and masculinity. In Study 2, we established that men may respond with physical aggression when targeted by these slurs. In Study 3, we demonstrated that slurs in different categories of our taxonomy produce varying levels of perceived offensiveness and likelihoods of aggressive responses. Finally, in Study 4, we showed that men's masculine honor beliefs are associated with their perceptions of slurs as offensive and the ratings of their likelihood of responding physically, especially for slurs that directly challenge their masculinity. These findings extend the extant literature that has examined the content of and reactions to slurs and physically aggressive responses to provocation, as well as that which has examined conceptualizations of masculine honor from both cultural and individual difference perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
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21. A plea for an experimental approach on slurs.
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Spotorno, Nicola and Bianchi, Claudia
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RACISM in language , *POSSIBILITY , *COGNITIVE processing of language , *DEBATE , *PERIPHERAL nervous system , *INVECTIVE - Abstract
The aim of our paper is to provide the reader with a sort of vademecum on the possibilities and the limits of an experimental approach to the study of slurs and derogatory language. We distinguish between off-line and on-line studies and underline the advantages and constraints of both methodologies. Empirical studies have already contributed to the investigation of slurs, at least as far as off-line experiments are concerned: we argue that on-line techniques might also provide interesting insights, but only to the extent to which one can derive predictions about the processing of slurs from the theories under investigation. We provide the example of two theoretical debates in which an on-line approach may prove useful in assessing various hypotheses – namely the content-based/non content-based dispute and the echoic approach to slurs. In closing we suggest an alternative domain in which experimental research and theoretical investigation on slurs might fruitfully interact: cognitive and affective neuroscience, and more particularly the investigation of how our cognitive system handles negative stimuli. Slurs may be seen as a prototype of aggressive behavior concentrated in a few words: therefore they are well suited for testing the reactions of our brain and peripheral nervous system to verbal aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2015
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22. Semantic constraint and pragmatic nonconformity for expressives: compatibility condition on slurs, epithets, anti-honorifics, intensifiers, and mitigators.
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Yoon, Suwon
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SEMANTICS , *PRAGMATICS , *EXPRESSIVE behavior , *RACISM in language , *EPITHETS , *HONORIFIC (Grammar) , *ADVERBS , *KOREANS - Abstract
The main goal of this paper is to propose the Compatibility Condition for multiple expressive elements in Korean, which is highly applicable in other languages. Exploring the behavior of ethnic slurs in the presence of other regular expressive elements, I show the systematicity of how various expressive items interact with one another. For this purpose, looking at Korean is advantageous since it extensively makes use of expressives across lexical categories. In doing so, I try to answer two main questions that haven't been taken seriously before. First, the multiple occurrences of identical expressives are known to be possible, but what about co-occurrences of different expressives with varying attitudes, including the conflicting ones? Do they freely occur within one utterance? If not, what constrains their compatibility condition and the degree of the compatibility? To solve this puzzle, I investigate the dynamic paradigm of multiple expressives. I propose the Compatibility Condition Model (CCM) and the Compatibility Condition Index (CCI), showing how a language like Korean constrains the possible co-occurrences of various types of expressives such as slurs, epithets, anti-honorifics, intensifiers, or mitigators. Second, how strict is the Compatibility Condition of expressives, and what happens if the condition is flouted? I show how in practice people intentionally flout the Compatibility Condition to achieve various pragmatic effects, presenting four interesting cases: (i) the juxtaposition of opposite attitudes with stronger pragmatic effects such as sarcasm, irony, or hyperbole; (ii) the well-known flip-flop of bipolar emotional index; (iii) the code-switching at Honorific-dimension as a strategy of modulating social distance; and (iv) the question of whether Emotion- and Honorific-dimensions operate autonomously. The result supports the notion of multidimensionality (Potts, 2005 et seq.) and furthermore the newfound hybrid nature of Conditional Autonomy , i.e., autonomy with intercommunication amongst expressive dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
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23. Spanish slurs and stereotypes for Mexican-Americans in the USA: A context-sensitive account of derogation and appropriation.
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Croom, Adam M.
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RACISM in language ,STEREOTYPES ,STEREOTYPE threat ,AFRICAN Americans ,GAY Americans - Abstract
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- 2014
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24. Meaning and racial slurs: Derogatory epithets and the semantics/pragmatics interface.
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Hedger, Joseph A.
- Subjects
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RACISM in language , *MEANING (Psychology) , *EPITHETS , *PRAGMATICS , *GENERAL semantics , *PHILOSOPHY of language - Abstract
Highlights: [•] A common philosophical move pushes any “messiness” over to pragmatics. [•] Contra Frege, what he called mood can sometimes affect truth conditions. [•] The offensiveness of slurs is conventional, constrained, and context- independent. [•] Slurs aren’t appropriately modeled by conventional implicature, contra Williamson. [•] The offensiveness of slurs is part of their semantic content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2013
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
25. How to do things with slurs: Studies in the way of derogatory words.
- Author
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Croom, Adam M.
- Subjects
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RACISM in language , *LANGUAGE & languages , *RESEMBLANCE (Philosophy) , *INTERDISCIPLINARY research , *MEANING (Psychology) , *ETHNOLOGY - Abstract
Highlights: [•] Accounts for slurs and their differential use by in-group and out-group speakers. [•] Introduces novel analyses of three different uses of slurs. [•] Integrates slurs with a family-resemblance conception of category membership. [•] Incorporates interdisciplinary research findings and includes comprehensive references. [•] Provides a list of seven desiderata to be met by any subsequent analyses of slurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2013
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
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