A contextualist analysis of insults
Date
2017
Authors
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Source Title
Modeling and Using Context: Proceedings of the 10th International and Interdisciplinary Conference, CONTEXT 2017
Print ISSN
0302-9743
Electronic ISSN
Publisher
Springer
Volume
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Pages
661 - 674
Language
English
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Abstract
For a predicate expression F contained in a sentence S (‘x is F’) to count as an insult, it should be used in a situation having a number of contextual elements. There should be an audience to whom the utterance of S is addressed. There should be a target of the insult, an individual who the speaker wishes to be shunned, excluded from certain, more or less salient, forms of social cooperation. The purpose of the utterance of S is to persuade the audience, by appeal to their emotions, to shun the target. Slurs have the canonical occasions of use structurally identical to the occasions of insults.