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On the Power of Slurring Words and Derogatory Gestures

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On the Power of Slurring Words and Derogatory Gestures Charged Expressions: On the Power of Slurring Words and Derogatory Gestures Ralph DiFranco, Ph.D. University of Connecticut, 2016 Slurs have the striking power to promulgate prejudice. Standard semantic and pragmatic theories fail to explain how this works. Drawing on embodied cognition research, I show that metaphorical slurs, descriptive slurs, and slurs that imitate their targets are effective means of transmitting prejudice because they are vehicles for prompting hearers to form mental images that depict targets in unflattering ways or to simulate experiential states such as negative feelings for targets. However, slurs are a heterogeneous group, and there may be no one mechanism by which slurs harm their targets. Some perpetrate a visceral kind of harm – they shock and offend hearers – while others sully hearers with objectionable imagery. Thus, a pluralistic account is needed. Although recent philosophical work on pejoratives has focused exclusively on words, derogation is a broader phenomenon that often constitutively involves various forms of non- verbal communication. This dissertation leads the way into uncharted territory by offering an account of the rhetorical power of iconic derogatory gestures and other non-verbal pejoratives that derogate by virtue of some iconic resemblance to their targets. Like many slurs, iconic derogatory gestures are designed to sully recipients with objectionable imagery. I also address ethical issues concerning the use of pejoratives. For instance, I show that the use of slurs for a powerful majority group by a vulnerable minority may be a morally valuable activity. i Charged Expressions: On the Power of Slurring Words and Derogatory Gestures Ralph DiFranco B.A., Cleveland State University, 2008 M.A., Texas Tech University, 2010 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut ii Copyright by Ralph Christopher DiFranco 2016 iii APPROVAL PAGE Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Charged Expressions: On the Power of Slurring Words and Derogatory Gestures Presented by Ralph Christopher DiFranco, B.A., M.A. Major Advisor____________________________________________ Mitchell Green Associate Advisor_________________________________________ Dorit Bar-On Associate Advisor_________________________________________ William Lycan University of Connecticut 2016 iv Acknowledgements I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Mitchell Green, who has been a generous, nurturing, and patient supervisor for the past five years. I have grown both as a philosopher and a person as a result of working with him. I began work on this dissertation at the University of Virginia, where I was Mitch’s student before we both moved to UConn. I am indebted to faculty and graduate students at UVA who provided many stimulating discussions regarding my project when it was in its earliest stages of development. Prior to coming to UVA, I worked with Christopher Hom, who deserves special thanks for introducing me to the topic of slurs in a seminar he taught at Texas Tech University. I have been fortunate to discuss my work in numerous meetings with my committee members, Dorit Bar-On and William Lycan, who have pushed me to think about my project in ways I had not considered previously. Audience members at various colloquia at UConn over the years have also benefitted me with helpful discussion and challenging questions. I am especially grateful to Daniel Silvermint, Suzy Killmister, Hallie Liberto, David Ripley, and Michael Lynch, all of whom graciously read my work and provided insightful feedback. Content from the first two Chapters of this dissertation appears in an encyclopedia entry, “Pejorative Language,” which I published in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. I am grateful to Anthony Neal, my commentator at the American Philosophical Association’s 2015 Central Division meeting, where I presented an early, abbreviated version of Chapter 3, and to Luvell Anderson, my commentator at the 2016 Pacific Division meeting, where I presented a version of Chapter 6, as well as audience members at both meetings. In 2015, I published a version of Chapter 4 in Thought: A Journal of Philosophy, and Chapters 5 and 6 are currently under review at journals. I have revised all three Chapters in light of extensive referee comments. v Lastly, I am thankful for family and friends who have provided encouragement and support throughout my career as a graduate student. vi Table of Contents Introduction__________________________________________________________________1 Chapter One: What’s Special about Charged Language?________________________________4 1. A Taxonomy of Expressive Behavior______________________________________4 1.1. Pejorative Language_____________________________________________8 1.2. Approbatives__________________________________________________12 1.3. Exclamations and Swears________________________________________13 2. Theoretical Benchmarks_______________________________________________14 2.1. Derogatory Power______________________________________________14 2.1.1. Quantifying the Harmful Effects of Slurs_________________________15 2.1.2. Qualitative Effects of Slurs___________________________________16 2.2. Truth-Conditional Content_______________________________________18 2.3. Expressive Autonomy___________________________________________19 2.4. Embedded Uses_______________________________________________20 2.5. Appropriation_________________________________________________24 2.6. Heterogeneity_________________________________________________25 3. Conclusion and a Preview of Things to Come______________________________25 Chapter Two: On the Failure of Standard Semantic and Pragmatic Theories_______________27 1. Introduction_______________________________________________________27 2. Expressivism______________________________________________________28 3. A Gestural Theory__________________________________________________33 4. Slurs and Truth-Value Gaps___________________________________________39 5. Presupposition_____________________________________________________41 vii 6. Fregean Minimalism_________________________________________________46 7. Implicature Theories_________________________________________________48 8. Perspectivalism_____________________________________________________56 9. Inferentialism______________________________________________________59 10. Stereotype Semantics________________________________________________61 11. Prohibitionism_____________________________________________________67 12. Conclusion________________________________________________________70 Chapter Three: Mental Imagery and the Rhetorical Power of Slurs_______________________72 1. Introduction_______________________________________________________72 2. Slurs and Embodied Language Processing_________________________________73 3. Other Pejoratives and Approbatives______________________________________90 4. The Power of Imagery________________________________________________93 5. Advantages of a Pluralistic Approach Over Standard Theories________________100 6. Appropriation______________________________________________________103 7. Conclusion________________________________________________________104 Chapter Four: Do Racists Speak Truly? on the Truth-Conditional Content of Slurs________106 1. Introduction_______________________________________________________106 2. Proponents of NC_________________________________________________107 3. Recent Challenges to NC____________________________________________108 4. Some New Data___________________________________________________114 5. Conclusion_______________________________________________________121 Chapter Five: Derogation Without Words: On the Power of Non-Verbal Pejoratives_______123 1. Introduction______________________________________________________123 viii 2. Categories of Non-Verbal Expressive Behavior___________________________124 3. Convention, Natural Design, Idiosyncrasy, and Iconicity____________________132 4. Imagery and the Rhetorical Power of NVPs_____________________________136 4.1.The Role of Imagery in Iconic Representation_____________________137 4.2.Iconicity and the Drift to the Arbitrary___________________________144 5. Imagery and Embodiment in Metaphorical Gestures_______________________147 6. The Inadequacy of Standard Semantic and Pragmatic Theories_______________149 7. Conclusion_______________________________________________________155 Chapter Six: Appropriate Slurs_________________________________________________157 1. Slurs and the Varieties of Social Groups_________________________________159 2. Relational Goods and Group Identities__________________________________165 2.1. Humorous Derogation________________________________________168 2.2. On the Significance of Vulnerability______________________________170 3. Pro Tanto Wrongs _________________________________________________174 4. Conclusion_______________________________________________________179 References________________________________________________________________181 ix Introduction This dissertation contributes to a growing body of literature on slurring words. In addition to engaging with previous work, it explores uncharted territory by offering a theory of the power of non-verbal pejoratives, and by addressing ethical questions surrounding the use of slurs that have been heretofore unanswered in the philosophical literature. Before we begin, a disclaimer: while this dissertation mentions many pejorative
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