Linguistics and English Language

Meaning and grammar seminar

Speaker: Elin Mccready (Aoyama Gakuin University)

Title: Dogwhistles, Ideologies and Vigilance

Abstract: A dogwhistle is a piece of language that sends one message to an outgroup while at the same time sending a second (often taboo, controversial, or inflammatory) message to an ingroup. This talk sketches an analysis of dogwhistles in the setting of social meaning games that treats them as signaling the persona of the speaker, and in some circumstances enabling an enrichment of the conventional meaning of the expression, and proposes a framework for understanding such enrichment in terms of ideologies. The talk concludes with a discussion of how epistemic vigilance can manifest as hypervigilance in a dogwhistle context.

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Seminars are organised by the meaning and grammar research group.

Meaning and grammar research group

If you'd like more information on dates and venues this semester, or if you'd like to present, please email Richard Wilson, or subscribe to our mailing list.

Richard Wilson

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Feb 09 2021 -

Meaning and grammar seminar

2021-02-09: Dogwhistles, Ideologies and Vigilance

Online via link invitation