Abstract
This essay examines the semantics and pragmatics of a handful of potential slurring terms identifying many of their uses in extant texts in order to assess slurring and non-slurring instances. Also examined are benchmarks for politeness that feed into so-called ‘political correctness’ and attitudes to what language expressions and behaviour are socially acceptable. People who find completely unacceptable those language expressions which are often employed as slurs or insults will regard reports of slurs as themselves slurring. The evidence, however, shows that, divorced from context, language expressions themselves do not slur, though they may be used in order to disparage, besmirch, insult, etc. – i.e., slur. It is a speaker/writer’s perlocutionary intention to slur which is truly reprehensible. Reports of slurs in themselves therefore do not slur unless the reporter subscribes to the intention to slur; a reporter who does not subscribe to the slur needs to somehow make clear their attitude.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Many people insist that lexical forms such as nigger invariably slur: it will be shown that this, like many other potentially offensive terms, can be used with no offense or disparagement intended or taken. This fact is incompatible with such a naīve view of the lexical form.
- 3.
The relation of nigger, nigra, nigga to Negro might be compared with the similar colloquial–formal correspondences bubby–baby, bust–burst, crick–creek, critter–creature, cuss–curse, gal–girl, hoss–horse, sassy–saucy, tit–teat.
- 4.
Nigger has been used by whites in referring to other peoples of dark complexion such as Australian Aborigines and (Asian) Indians.
- 5.
Alessandro Capone has suggested to me (p.c) that there are two words nigger 1 a slur and nigger 2 not a slur (and presumably the same for all other words that are potential slurs). This is a classic example of polysemy and so although one cannot say Ordell is a nigger 1 and so is Beaumont [a nigger 2 ] because it violates the Q-principle of both Horn (1984), Levinson (2000) it is perfectly possible for one African-American to say to another That honkey called me a nigger 1 , nigger 2 .
- 6.
It is tempting to surmise that these must be ‘redlight’ venues, but that is not the case.
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to Mike Balint, Alessandro Capone, Ernie Lepore, and Humphrey van Polanen Petel for comments on earlier versions of this essay that led to its improvement. They are in no way responsible for the infelicities of this version because I sometimes ignored their recommendations.
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Allan, K. (2016). The Reporting of Slurs. In: Capone, A., Kiefer, F., Lo Piparo, F. (eds) Indirect Reports and Pragmatics. Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21395-8_11
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