Phenomenology and Mind

No. 11 (2016): Emotions, Normativity, and Social Life
Session 3. Emotions, Language, and Hate Speech

Slurs and Negation

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  • Francesca Panzeri,
  • Simone Carrus
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13128/Phe_Mi-20117

Published 2017-01-04

Keywords

  • slurs,
  • pejoratives,
  • metalinguistic negation

How to Cite

Panzeri, F., & Carrus, S. (2017). Slurs and Negation. Phenomenology and Mind, (11), 170–180. https://doi.org/10.13128/Phe_Mi-20117
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Abstract

We present the results of an experimental study that aims at establishing whether the offensive component of slurs exhibits nondisplaceability (Potts 2007). We found that the derogatory content survives in conditionals and questions (supporting a pragmatic approach), and diminishes in indirect reports (in line with presuppositional accounts); surprisingly, the offensiveness of slurs results almost nullified in negated sentences. In a second study, we explore the hypothesis that negated slurs were rated as not offensive because the negation was interpreted as metalinguistic.

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