Are ableist insults secretly slurs?. (January 2020)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Are ableist insults secretly slurs?. (January 2020)
- Main Title:
- Are ableist insults secretly slurs?
- Authors:
- Cousens, Chris
- Abstract:
- Abstract: Philosophers often treat racist and sexist slurs as a special sort of puzzle. What is the difference between a slur and its correlates? In attempting to answer this question, a second distinction has been overlooked: that between slurs and insults. What makes a term count as a slur? This is not an unnecessary taxonomical question as long as ableist terms such as 'moron' are dismissed as mere insults. Attempts to resolve the insult/slur distinction by considering the communicative content of slurs are not promising. A better solution is offered by speech act theory, and this paper develops a novel way to describe ordinary slurring utterances as oppressive speech acts. This can both explain the difference between slurs and insults, and challenge the dismissal of ableist terms. Highlights: Distinguishing between 'slurs' and 'insults' is difficult to do with existing philosophical accounts of slurs. The best way to account for the insult/slur distinction is with speech act theory. Ableist insults are often mistakenly treated as insults when they have much more in common with slurs.
- Is Part Of:
- Language sciences. Volume 77(2020)
- Journal:
- Language sciences
- Issue:
- Volume 77(2020)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 77, Issue 2020 (2020)
- Year:
- 2020
- Volume:
- 77
- Issue:
- 2020
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2020-0077-2020-0000
- Page Start:
- Page End:
- Publication Date:
- 2020-01
- Subjects:
- Slurs -- Speech acts -- Insults -- Ableism
Linguistics -- Periodicals
Language and languages -- Periodicals
Linguistique -- Périodiques
Langage et langues -- Périodiques
Language and languages
Linguistics
Periodicals
Electronic journals
405 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03880001 ↗
http://www.elsevier.com/journals ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1016/j.langsci.2019.101252 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0388-0001
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 5155.711700
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 12460.xml