Slurs and Expressivity

Eleonora Orlando is professor of philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires and researcher at the Argentine National Scientific and Technical Research Council. Andrés Saab is professor of linguistics at the University of Buenos Aires and researcher at the Argentine National Scientific and Technical Research Council.

• ContentsList of Tables and FiguresPrefaceChapter 1: Dualism and Monism in the Study of Slurs and BeyondEleonora Orlando and Andrés SaabChapter 2: On the Locus of Expressivity. Deriving Parallel Meaning Dimensions from Architectural ConsiderationsAndrés SaabChapter 3: The Discursive Dimension of SlursNicolás Lo GuercioChapter 4: A Bidimensional Account of SlursRamiro CasoChapter 5: Expressives and the Theory of BiasLudovic Soutif and Carlos MárquezChapter 6: Taboo: The Case of SlursStefano PredelliChapter 7: Slurs, the Amoralist and the Expression of HateJustina Díaz LegaspeChapter 8: On the Moral Import of Using SlursEleonora OrlandoChapter 9: Sudaca. Slurs and TypifyingAlfonso LosadaAbout the Contributors

The essays, most by Latin American scholars, are philosophical and linguistic studies representing a variety of theoretic orientations. What brings the essays together is the issue of what it means for a word to express a derogatory concept and how such meanings are reflected in use. The nine papers cover three broad areas. One is the separation of truth-conditions and reference from expressive force—the dualism of expressive terms. Another is the so-called hyper-expressivity of slurs, which refers to the way they retain their derogatory force across contexts. The third is the moral import of slurs and the independence of expressivity from attitude. Readers will require grounding in such concepts as truth-conditional and non-truth-conditional meaning, two-dimensional semantics, and conversational and conventional implicature, among others.… Slurs and Expressivity is an excellent contribution to the literature on philosophy of language[.] Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.