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Slurs, truth-value judgements, and context sensitivity

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Sileo, RB 

Abstract

Cappelen and Lepore (2005) claim that the English language contains a basic and limited set of context-sensitive expressions, as only expressions within this set pass the truth-related tests that they propose to single out context-sensitive from context-insensitive words. In this paper I argue that racial and ethnic slurs also pass Cappelen and Lepore’s context sensitivity tests and that, as a result, slurs should also be seen as context-sensitive expressions in a truth-related sense.

Description

Keywords

5003 Philosophy, 50 Philosophy and Religious Studies

Journal Title

Human Affairs

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1210-3055
1337-401X

Volume Title

28

Publisher

Slovak Academic Press Ltd