Slurs and speech acts

In this essay, a multi-act view of the meaning of slurs is defended. According to such view, when a speaker utters a sentence containing a slur, she simultaneously performs two different speech acts, one of which, following Searle's taxonomy (Searle, 1975), is an expressive one. Although this view is a particular version of expressivism, it has many advantages over other versions of this theory. First, it allows a clearer definition of the expressive component of slurs by relating slurs with other sentences in which we express various attitudes, not only contempt. Second, it can explain descriptive ineffability drawing on the fact that non-representative speech acts cannot be reduced to representative ones. Third, it can respond to some powerful criticisms recently directed against expressivism. • Slurs have a two-dimensional meaning: a descriptive and an expressive component. • The expressive component can be explained in terms of speech act theory as an expressive act (according to Searle's taxonomy) • Our version of expressivism can answer some of the most powerful criticisms moved against such theory. • Our view highlights that the person who uses a slur does not say something false but does something morally wrong. • Our view can be easily extended to other pejoratives and connoted expressions.