Slurs and Expressivity: Semantics and Beyond, edited by Eleonora Orlando and Andres Saab,focuses on the analysis of the expressive aspects of slur-words, namely, those words prima facie related to the conveyance of contemptuous or derogatory feelings for the members of a certain group of people identified in terms of their ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, political ideology, and other personal qualities. In as far as they are used to express emotional attitudes, slurs are, thus, a kind of expressive words. This collection provides different hypotheses regarding the way in which the expressive import of slurs and other related expressive words is semantically encoded in the grammar, and how their meaning impacts other aspects related to their use in different practices of linguistic communication. These linguistic practices are usually, but not always, related to practices of segregation and discrimination of particular human groups. Therefore, any contribution to the theory of slur meaning is, directly or indirectly, also a contribution to a better understanding of those practices and to finding the best way to eradicate them.
Eleonora Orlando is associate professor at the Philosophy Department of the University of Buenos Aires and independent researcher at the IIF-SADAF-CONICET. Andres Saab is associate researcher at the Argentine National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and associate professor at the University of Buenos Aires.
Contents List of Tables and Figures Preface Chapter 1: Dualism and Monism in the Study of Slurs and Beyond Eleonora Orlando and Andres Saab Chapter 2: On the Locus of Expressivity. Deriving Parallel Meaning Dimensions from Architectural Considerations Andres Saab Chapter 3: The Discursive Dimension of Slurs Nicolas Lo Guercio Chapter 4: A Bidimensional Account of Slurs Ramiro Caso Chapter 5: Expressives and the Theory of Bias Ludovic Soutif and Carlos Marquez Chapter 6: Taboo: The Case of Slurs Stefano Predelli Chapter 7: Slurs, the Amoralist and the Expression of Hate Justina Diaz Legaspe Chapter 8: On the Moral Import of Using Slurs Eleonora Orlando Chapter 9: Sudaca. Slurs and Typifying Alfonso Losada About the Contributors
"This book is a valuable contribution to the expanding literature on slurs, collecting recent work by members of the philosophy of language group of the SADAF and invited researchers. The essays in the volume fit right into ongoing debates, tackling both foundational and applied issues. Thus, the contributors offer new insights into the semantics of slurs, propose new ways of dealing with some of the most pressing questions surrounding them (e.g., their hyper-projectability), and explore their relationship with broader moral, cultural, and social aspects. Among the nice features of the volume is that it features discussions of slurs from other languages than English (which has been the focus of most literature on slurs so far)."--Dan Zeman, Slovak Academy of Sciences "This book will be a valuable addition to a timely, important topic. Perhaps more obviously and more pressingly than with other philosophical issues, the topic of slurs has a practical and social dimension. And it's one of the virtues of this book that it broadens the sources of expert contributors on this topic, incorporating perspectives on slurs in other languages and used in other ethnic and international contexts. The book also has the virtue, more generally, of displaying--what should be more appreciated--the very high quality of philosophical work being done in Latin America."--David Sosa, University of Texas, Austin
