Full Description
When theorizing about language, we tend to assume that speakers are cooperative, honest, helpful, and so on. This, of course, isn't remotely true of a lot of real-world language use. Bad Language is the first textbook to explore non-idealized language use, the linguistic behaviour of those who exploit language for malign purposes. Two eminent philosophers of language present a lively and accessible introduction to a wide range of topics including lies and bullshit, slurs and insults, coercion and silencing: Cappelen and Dever offer theoretical frameworks for thinking about these all too common linguistic behaviours. As the text does not assume prior training in philosophy or linguistics, it is ideal for use as part of a philosophy of language course for philosophy students or for linguistics students.
Bad Language belongs to the series Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy of Language, in which each book introduces an important area of the philosophy of language, suitable for students at any level.
Contents
1: Idealized Communication
2: Three Forms of Non-Ideal Language
3: Messing with the Truth
4: Bullshitting and Deep Bullshitting
5: Conceptual Engineering
6: Slurs and Pejoratives
7: Lexical Effects: The Non-Cognitive, Associative, Effects of Words
8: Generics and Defective Reasoning
9: Non-Ideal Speech Acts
10: Linguistic Oppressing and Linguistic Silencing
11: The Speech Act of Consent
12: Thoughts on Ideal vs. Non-Ideal Theories of Language
