Bad Language by Cappelen Herman; Dever Josh; & Josh Dever

Author:Cappelen, Herman; Dever, Josh; & Josh Dever
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2019-02-21T00:00:00+00:00

1 These are offensive terms, and shouldn’t be bandied about casually. We won’t, of course, be using them to describe or label anyone. But even the mention of such terms can reasonably give offense. As a result, sometimes discussions of slurs focus on particularly mild slurs (archaic slurs like ‘boche’, slurs with somewhat less cultural vitriol behind them like ‘chav’, or slurs targeting more empowered groups such as ‘geek’), or make use of euphemistic reference to slurs (‘the N word’, ‘a slurring term for promiscuous women’), or use schematic or fictional examples (‘consider a slur S’). Nevertheless, we will be mentioning these terms in abundance. We worry that theorizing when the offensive terms are hidden away runs the risk of inadvertently minimizing the power of slurs and endorsing a theory that can’t properly account for that power. The opening paragraphs of Geoffrey Pullum’s paper ‘Slurs and Obscenities’ (2018) makes more extensively the case for the approach we are taking here.

2 The full text can be read here: <https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_38/December_1890/What_Shall_We_Do_with_the_Dago%3F>.

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