An Indexical Theory of Racial PejorativesCitation formats
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An Indexical Theory of Racial Pejoratives. / Scott, Michael; Stevens, Graham.
In: Analytic Philosophy, Vol. 60, No. 4, 2019, p. 385-404.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - An Indexical Theory of Racial Pejoratives
AU - Scott, Michael
AU - Stevens, Graham
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - This paper defends a novel truth-conditional theory of racial pejoratives that is distinctive by locating an indexical component in their content. The paper reviews rival theories (which are divided into three main approaches: semantic, pragmatic and prohibition accounts) and sets out some of their main difficulties, with particular focus on the difficulties in explaining the apparent context sensitivity of the content of pejorative expressions. The indexical theory, it is argued, not only avoids these problems but provides a better account of three characteristic features of pejoratives that a satisfactory theory of pejoratives should be able to explain. These are, first, the explosive force that utterances of pejoratives have even in apparently ‘innocent’ uses; second, the apparently non-derogatory use of pejoratives when they are appropriated by the target community; third, the distinctive behaviour of pejoratives in contexts of embedding under verbs of propositional attitude.
AB - This paper defends a novel truth-conditional theory of racial pejoratives that is distinctive by locating an indexical component in their content. The paper reviews rival theories (which are divided into three main approaches: semantic, pragmatic and prohibition accounts) and sets out some of their main difficulties, with particular focus on the difficulties in explaining the apparent context sensitivity of the content of pejorative expressions. The indexical theory, it is argued, not only avoids these problems but provides a better account of three characteristic features of pejoratives that a satisfactory theory of pejoratives should be able to explain. These are, first, the explosive force that utterances of pejoratives have even in apparently ‘innocent’ uses; second, the apparently non-derogatory use of pejoratives when they are appropriated by the target community; third, the distinctive behaviour of pejoratives in contexts of embedding under verbs of propositional attitude.
KW - Semantics
KW - Pragmatics
KW - Pejoratives
KW - Indexicals
U2 - 10.1111/phib.12156
DO - 10.1111/phib.12156
M3 - Article
VL - 60
SP - 385
EP - 404
JO - Analytic Philosophy
JF - Analytic Philosophy
SN - 2153-960X
IS - 4
ER -