A Defense of Lexical Accounts of Slurs

I defend a lexical account of slurs against criticisms mounted by Stojnić and Lepore, and present positive reasons for preferring a lexical account over the articulation account they put forward. A lexical account, I argue, explains why articulations of a slur give offense: viz., they are recognized as articulations of a particular word. A lexical account also does better than the articulation account in explaining the naive acquisition and use of slurs, facts about mishearing and mispronouncing, the evolution of certain words into or away from status as slurs, and the fact that “reclaimed” slurring words still give offense when used as slurs.