Group Slurs, Stereotypes and Derogative Speech Acts

ORLANDO, ELEONORA

San Sebastián

Conferencia; Conferencia dada por invitación; 2019

Departamento de Filosofía, Universidad del País Vasco

The talk was about paradigmatic group slur-words, i.e., expressions that are prima facie associated with the expression of a contemptuous attitude concerning a certain group of people identified in terms of its origin or descent, race, sexual orientation, religion, habits or ways of living, etc. My purpose is twofold: (i) explaining their expressive meaning dimension in terms of a version of stereotype semantics; (ii) analysing their most common, derogatory uses in terms of a speech act theory. With regard to the first objective, I will suggest that their expressive meaning can be conceived of as a socially determined normative stereotype, namely, a complex concept constituted by an open list of descriptive, thick and purely evaluative ones, with an encoded negative global value. As for the second objective, I will argue that their most common, derogatory uses involve a derogatory intention, namely, the kind of communicative intention characteristic of a sub-kind of speech acts with derogative force. This expressive component is thus pragmatic, that is, not part of their conventional meaning. In sum, I will conclude that paradigmatic slur-words, semantically linked to normative stereotypes, are typically used to make derogative speech acts.