Bad Words

Bjrn Technau, Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict There should be no doubt that Bad Words is an excellent read of superb quality. No other extant volume can compete with the high standards and comprehensiveness of this volume. It is a necessary reference for all current and future research on the complex matter of the meaning of slurs.

D. B. Boersema, CHOICE Sosa ... has brought together nine leading scholars of philosophy of language to produce the first serious philosophical analysis and examination of pejorative language, slurs in particular ... Recommended.

Ralph DiFranco, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews a valuable resource for readers who want to become informed about some of the most popular and widely discussed positions among philosophers of language on the semantics and pragmatics of words that are slurs

David Sosa is Temple Centennial Professor in the Humanities at UT Austin. He has been at Austin since 1997, after spending two years on a postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley. Before that, he completed his PhD at Princeton. Sosa serves as editor of the journal Analytic Philosophy, and he is co-editor of Philosophy of Language (Oxford, 6th edition), Analytic Philosophy: An Anthology (Wiley/Blackwell), and Analytic Philosophy: A Companion (Wiley/Blackwell).

David Sosa: Introduction 1: Calling, Addressing, and Appropriation: Calling, Addressing, and Appropriation 2: Elisabeth Camp: Calling, Addressing, and Appropriation 3: Kent Bach: Loaded Words: On the Semantics and Pragmatics of Slurs 4: Robin Jeshion: Slurs, Dehumanization, and the Expression of Contempt 5: Christopher Hom and Robert May: Pejoratives as Fiction 6: Ernie Lepore and Matthew Stone: Pejorative Tone 7: Mark Richard: How do Slurs Mean? 8: Geoffrey Pullum: Slurs and Obscenities: Lexicography, Semantics, and Philosophy 9: Laurence Horn: Nice Words for Nasty Things: Taboo and its Discontents