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Article published In:
Hate speech: Definitions, interpretations and practices
Edited by Fabienne H. Baider, Sharon Millar and Stavros Assimakopoulos
[Pragmatics and Society 11:2] 2020
► pp. 219–240

The Multi-Component Model for the semantic analysis of slurs

| The German Immersion School of New York

The semantics of slur terms has provoked some debate within the philosophy of language, and different analysis models have been proposed to account for the complex meaning of these terms. The present paper acknowledges the complexity of the matter and presents an analysis model that is inspired by multiple-component approaches to slurs, such as those by Camp (2018) and Jeshion (2018). The Multi-Component Model for the semantic analysis of slurs (MCM) tracks down altogether four meaning components in group-based slur terms: a referential and a pejorative meaning component (being xy and despicable because of it), as well as a scalar component capturing the term’s individual degree of offensiveness, and an expressive component indexing heightened emotions in all contexts of use. The notion of individual offensiveness degrees (that are fed by a multitude of semantic, pragmatic, and/or extralinguistic sources) allows us to account for the differences between slurs for the same ethnic group (such as nigger, negro, coon, darkie for Blacks); and the separation of the expressive component from the pejorative component can (1) explain the high frequency of non-pejorative uses, and (2) correctly describe these uses as expressive.

Keywords: slurs, semantics, survey study, semantics/pragmatics interface, offensiveness, expressive meaning
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Types of slurs
    • 2.1The structure of the taboo category
    • 2.2Why group-based slurs stand out
  • 3.Separating semantics and pragmatics
  • 4.The Multi-Component Model
    • 4.1Referential component
    • 4.2Pejorative component
    • 4.3Scalar component
    • 4.4Expressive component
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 July 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.18081.tec
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