Institutskollo­quium: Dan Zeman "The Politics of Slur-Use: Two Issues"

ABSTRACT

Slurs are expressions whose use has important social, moral and political implications due to their capacity to derogate their targets, which in turn can aid dehumanization (Livingstone Smith 2011) and, in some extreme cases, lead to violence (Tirrell 2012). A lot of the linguistic research on slurs has focused on capturing their derogatory character, and there is nowadays a plethora of semantic and pragmatic theories on offer. In this talk, I focus on two issues pertaining to the politics of using slurs. First, I tackle reclamation: while a full picture of this complex social phenomenon is still missing, the orthodoxy is that reclamation can be initiated (and in certain cases perpetuated) only by members of the target group. This idea has recently been challenged by Cepollaro & López de Sa (2022). I survey their examples and argue that they are not convincing. Second, I tackle the issue of whether a ban on using slurs is desirable; recently, Moreno & Pérez-Navarro (2021) and Moreno (2023) have urged caution with any use of slurs, including in academic papers. I engage with their arguments and show that they don’t mandate a general ban on slur-use.  

Link to Research Network: STAL