Claudia Bianchi | Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele (original) (raw)

Papers by Claudia Bianchi

Synthese, 2024

In this paper I characterize an unexplored category of what I call unfinished speech acts (USA), ... more In this paper I characterize an unexplored category of what I call unfinished speech acts (USA), intentionally designed by the speaker as incomplete, and intended to be finalised by the hearer. The speaker relies on the hearer's contribution because she desires to minimize conversational risk regarding a certain implicit content or a certain indirect speech act. I focus on three paradigm cases: insinuations, polite novel (as opposed to conventionalized) indirect speech acts, and flirting. I sketch a general characterization of USAs, and underline several important dissimilarities between USAs and standard implicatures and conventionalized indirect speech acts. In closing, I gesture at ways the notion of USA could clarify recent philosophical debates, from both a theoretical and a socially engaged point of view: my proposal elucidates how explicit and implicit contents manage to enter the conversational context and, more generally, how speech acts are successfully performed-with an obvious impact on how we conceptualize both the speaker's and the audience's conversational responsibility.

Argumenta, 2022

The debate about speech acts in sexual contexts has been dominated by discussions of consent and ... more The debate about speech acts in sexual contexts has been dominated by discussions of consent and refusal, two illocutions strictly connected to definitions of sexual assault and rape, which constitutes a crucial step in fighting male sexual violence against women. Many authors have recently claimed that this emphasis has a distorting and harmful impact on our understanding of sexual communication-for it highlights only its negative aspects (mostly how to avoid unwanted sex). Moreover, an account in terms of consent and refusal seems to presuppose a default asymmetrical scenario, with men actively requesting sexual activities and women passively consenting or refusing. The aim of my paper is to assess the different speech-act accounts modelling communication in sexual contexts. I will first summarize the philosophical discussion on consent and refusal in sexual contexts and underline its connections with the debate on hate speech. I will then explore the model of initiations of sex in terms of requests and requests for permission, and analyse the asymmetry and benefit objections. I will present the models in terms of invitations, gift offers, and proposals, advocated by Kukla 2018, Gardner 2018 and Caponetto 2021b for their collaborative nature: invitations and proposals are illocutions presenting the sexual activity as beneficial for both parties and framing sex as a joint activity. My main goal is to criticize such Collaborative Models: I will show that conceiving of initiations of sex in terms of invitations, offers and proposals does not remove but rather actually masks the asymmetry.

in L. Caponetto & P. Labinaz (eds.) Sbisà on Speech as Action, London, Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming, 2023

The debate about the determination of the illocutionary force of a speech act revolves around the... more The debate about the determination of the illocutionary force of a speech act revolves around the notion of uptake and the role played by the audience: many scholars consider the hearer's recognition of the force of the locution a necessary condition for the performance of an illocution. A variety of theories has been put forward. According to Langton (1993), the hearer's uptake determines whether a successful act has been performed. According to Kukla (2014), the hearer's uptake constitutes the nature of the act performed. According to McDonald (2021b), the illocutionary force of a speech act is the result of a process of negotiation between hearer and speaker. Drawing on the theoretical tools provided by Marina Sbisà's work, I will show how the theories giving the audience a central role in fixing the illocutionary force of a speech act fall short. The topic proves relevant not only for theoretical reasons, but also for social and political ones. In particular, it has a bearing on debates about pragmatic phenomena of illocutionary distortion such as discursive injustice and silencing, where marginalized speakers have trouble performing particular speech acts they are entitled to perform.

Laterza, 2021

I limiti di ciò che può essere detto cambia insieme i limiti di ciò che può essere fatto. Ecco pe... more I limiti di ciò che può essere detto cambia insieme i limiti di ciò che può
essere fatto. Ecco perché l’attenzione al linguaggio che usiamo non è una questione di dettaglio, un capriccio degli adepti del politicamente corretto, quasi un lusso di fronte a sperequazioni economiche, discriminazioni sul posto di lavoro, crimini d’odio. È il linguaggio lo strumento chiave che plasma e trasforma le nostre identità, in particolare le nostre identità sociali, crea e rinforza le asimmetrie e le ingiustizie sociali, diffonde e legittima i pregiudizi e la discriminazione, fomenta l’odio e la violenza.

Topoi, 2020

In recent times, phenomena of conversational asymmetry have become a lively object of study for l... more In recent times, phenomena of conversational asymmetry have become a lively object of study for linguists, philosophers of language and moral philosophers-under various labels: illocutionary disablement and silencing (Langton in Philos Public distortion (Green in The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, 2014, Oxford handbooks online, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2017). The common idea is that members of underprivileged groups sometimes have trouble performing particular speech acts that they are entitled to perform: in certain contexts, their performative potential is somehow undermined, and their capacity to do things with words is distorted or even annulled. In this paper I will assess this idea, focusing on Rebecca Kukla's and Rae Langton's accounts; in particular, I will criticize the role the notion of uptake plays in their accounts, and claim that it may ultimately undermine the very idea of discursive injustice. While, according to Kukla and Langton, members of disadvantaged groups are victims of a kind of uptake failure, leading to illocutionary disablement and even silencing, in the account I present they are victims of a kind of communicative (neither illocutionary nor perlocutionary) disablement. My overall aim is to develop a notion of discursive injustice that is more plausible and more effective for our broader purposes of criticising the structures of power and oppression.

Beyond Semantics and Pragmatics, 2018

In discussing figurative speech, Lepore and Stone argue that metaphorical interpretation involves... more In discussing figurative speech, Lepore and Stone argue that metaphorical interpretation involves a process of perspective taking: metaphor invites us to organize our thinking about something through an analogical correspondence with something it is not. According to them, the same applies to slurs: some words come with an invitation to take a certain perspective, and uses of slurs are associated with ways of thinking about their targets that can harm people. My aim is to critically evaluate such a proposal, within a speech-acts framework. In the recent literature on hate speech, utterances containing slurs are conceived as speech acts in two distinct senses: 1. as perlocutionary acts that cause harm to their targets; 2. as illocutionary acts that constitute harm towards their targets. I will claim that Lepore and Stone’s proposal can be understood both in perlocutionary and illocutionary terms, and argue in favor of an illocutionary approach.

Journal of Pragmatics, 2019

In this paper, we present three studies on slurs and non-slurring insults presented (i) in isolat... more In this paper, we present three studies on slurs and non-slurring insults presented (i) in isolation (Pilot study), (ii) in direct speech (Study 1) and (iii) in indirect reports (Study 2). The Pilot study showed that on average slurs are perceived as more offensive than non-slurring insults when presented in isolation. In Study 1, we found some surprising results: when they occur in atomic predications of the form 'X is a P', in average slurs are perceived as less offensive than when they occur in isolation, while insults are perceived as more offensive than when they occur in isolation. In order to explain these two findings, we have developed an information-based hypothesis that crucially illuminates the distinction between slurs and non-slurring insults in terms of the information they carry and the function that they fulfil. Such a perspective is more compatible with hybrid views (e.g. presuppositional) rather than with expressivist theories. Moreover, Study 2 showed that indirect report of the form 'Z: Y said that X is a P' decreases (without deleting) the offensiveness of utterances featuring slurs and insults. Such results speak against prohibitionist theories on slurs and pose challenges to the non-prohibitionist accounts.

Grazer Philosophische Studien, 2019

According to Mitchell Green, speech act theory traditionally idealizes away from crucial aspects ... more According to Mitchell Green, speech act theory traditionally idealizes away from crucial aspects of conversational contexts, including those in which the speaker's social position affects the possibility of her performing certain speech acts. In recent times, asymmetries in communicative situations have become a lively object of study for linguists , philosophers of language and moral philosophers: several scholars view hate speech itself in terms of speech acts, namely acts of subordination (acts establishing or reinforcing unfair hierarchies). The aim of this paper is to address one of the main objections to accounts of hate speech in terms of illocutionary speech acts, that is the Authority Problem. While the social role of the speaker is the focus of several approaches (Langton 2018a, 2018b; Maitra 2012; Kukla 2014; Green 2014, 2017a, 2017b), the social role of the audience has too often been neglected. The author will show that not only must the speaker have a certain kind of standing or social position in order to perform
speech acts of subordination, but also the audience must typically have a certain kind of standing or social position in order to either license or object to the speaker’s authority, and her acts of subordination.

The aim of our paper is to provide the reader with a sort of vademecum on the possibilities and t... more The aim of our paper is to provide the reader with a sort of vademecum on the possibilities and the limits of an experimental approach to the study of slurs and derogatory language. We distinguish between off-line and on-line studies and underline the advantages and constraints of both methodologies. Empirical studies have already contributed to the investigation of slurs, at least as far as off-line experiments are concerned: we argue that on-line techniques might also provide interesting insights, but only to the extent to which one can derive predictions about the processing of slurs from the theories under investigation. We provide the example of two theoretical debates in which an on-line approach may prove useful in assessing various hypotheses – namely the content-based/non content-based dispute and the echoic approach to slurs. In closing we suggest an alternative domain in which experimental research and theoretical investigation on slurs might fruitfully interact: cognitive and affective neuroscience, and more particularly the investigation of how our cognitive system handles negative stimuli. Slurs may be seen as a prototype of aggressive behavior concentrated in a few words: therefore they are well suited for testing the reactions of our brain and peripheral nervous system to verbal aggression.

EPSA Epistemology and Methodology of Science, Jan 1, 2010

Journal of Pragmatics, 2014

Slurs are derogatory terms targeting individuals and groups of individuals on the basis of race, ... more Slurs are derogatory terms targeting individuals and groups of individuals on the basis of race, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation. The aim of my paper is to propose an account of appropriated uses of slurs – i.e. uses by targeted groups of their own slurs for non-derogatory purposes, as in the appropriation of ‘nigger’ by the African-American community, or the appropriation of ‘queer’ by the homosexual community. In my proposal appropriated uses are conceived as echoic, in Relevance Theory terms: in-groups echo derogatory uses in ways and contexts that make manifest the dissociation from the offensive contents. I will show that the echoic strategy has interesting advantages over alternative theories, and especially over Anderson and Lepore’s deflationary strategy.

Philosophical Studies, 2014

"The aim of this paper is to evaluate which context determines the illocutionary force of written... more "The aim of this paper is to evaluate which context determines the illocutionary force of written or recorded
utterances—those involved in written texts, films and images, conceived as recordings that can be seen or
heard in different occasions. More precisely, my paper deals with the “metaphysical” or constitutive role of
context—as opposed to its epistemic or evidential role: my goal is to determine which context is semantically
relevant in order to fix the illocutionary force of a speech act, as distinct from the information the addressee
uses to ascertain the semantically relevant context. In particular I will try to assess two different perspectives
on this problem, a Conventionalist Perspective and an Intentionalist Perspective. Drawing on the literature
on indexicals in written texts and recorded messages, I will argue in favor of the Intentionalist Perspective:
the relevant context is the one intended by the speaker. Bringing intentions into the picture, however, requires
qualification; in particular, I will distinguish my Weak Intentionalist proposal from a Strong Intentionalist
one. I will show that the Weak Intentionalist Perspective is flexible enough to deal with cases of delayed
communication, but not so unrestricted as to yield counter-intuitive consequences."

in M. Sbisà & K. Turner (eds.) Pragmatics of Speech Actions, Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter, 2013

Implicating, as it is conceived in recent pragmatics, amounts to conveying a (propositional) cont... more Implicating, as it is conceived in recent pragmatics, amounts to conveying a (propositional) content without saying it – a content providing no contribution to the truth-conditions of the proposition expressed by the sentence uttered. In this sense, implicating is a notion closely related to the work of Paul Grice (1913-1988) and of his precursors, followers and critics. Hence, the task of this article is to introduce and critically examine the explicit/implicit distinction, the Gricean notion of implicature (conventional and conversational) and its recent developments and connections with the speaker's intentions, communicative responsibility and rationality.

IEP – Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy , 2013

J. L. Austin was one of the more influential British philosophers of his time, due to his rigorou... more J. L. Austin was one of the more influential British philosophers of his time, due to his rigorous thought, extraordinary personality, and innovative philosophical method. According to John Searle, he was both passionately loved and hated by his contemporaries. Like Socrates, he seemed to destroy all philosophical orthodoxy without presenting an alternative, equally comforting, orthodoxy.

Austin is best known for two major contributions to contemporary philosophy: first, his ‘linguistic phenomenology’, a peculiar method of philosophical analysis of the concepts and ways of expression of everyday language; and second, speech act theory, the idea that every use of language carries a performative dimension (in the well-known slogan, “to say something is to do something”). Speech act theory has had consequences and import in research fields as diverse as philosophy of language, ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of law, linguistics, artificial intelligence and feminist philosophy.

This article describes Austin’s linguistic method and his speech act theory, and it describes the original contributions he made to epistemology and philosophy of action. It closes by focusing on two main developments of speech act theory─the dispute between conventionalism and intentionalism, and the debate on free speech, pornography, and censorship.

Analysis, 2008

In the last twenty years, recorded messages and written notes have become a significant test and ... more In the last twenty years, recorded messages and written notes have become a significant test and an intriguing puzzle for the semantics of indexical expressions (see Smith 1989, Predelli 1996, 1998a, 1998b, 2002, Corazza et al. 2002, Romdenh-Romluc 2002). In particular, the intention-based approach proposed by Stefano Predelli has proven to bear interesting relations to several major questions in philosophy of language. In a recent paper (Saul 2006), Jennifer Saul draws on the literature on indexicals and recorded messages in order to criticize Rae Langton's claim that works of pornography can be understood as illocutionary acts – in particular acts of subordinating women or acts of silencing women. Saul argues that it does not make sense to understand works of pornography as speech acts, because only utterances in contexts can be speech acts. More precisely, works of pornography such as a film may be seen as recordings that can be used in many different contexts – exactly like a written note or an answering machine message. According to Saul, bringing contexts into the picture undermines Langton's radical thesis – which must be reformulated in much weaker terms. In this paper, I accept Saul's claim that only utterances in contexts can be speech acts, and that therefore only works of pornography in contexts may be seen as illocutionary acts of silencing women. I will, nonetheless, show that Saul's reformulation doesn't undermine Langton's thesis. To this aim, I will use the distinction Predelli proposes in order to account for the semantic behaviour of indexical expressions in recorded messages – namely the distinction between context of utterance and context of interpretation.

Philosophical Studies, 2006

In my paper, I present two competing perspectives on the foundational problem (as opposed to the ... more In my paper, I present two competing perspectives on the foundational problem (as opposed to the descriptive problem) of quantifier domain restriction: the objective perspective on context (OPC) and the intentional perspective on context (IPC). According to OPC, the relevant domain for a quantified sentence is determined by objective facts of the context of utterance. In contrast, according to IPC, we must consider certain features of the speaker's intention in order to determine the proposition expressed. My goal is to offer a plausible and fair reconstruction of IPC. Drawing a parallel between quantifier domain restriction and standard cases of context dependence as indexicality, I argue that the speaker's intentions can play a semantic role only if they satisfy an Availability Constraint: an intention must be made available or communicated to the addressee, and for that purpose the speaker can exploit any feature of the objective context (words, gestures, relevance or uniqueness of either the quantificational domain or of the referent in the context of utterance). An intention satisfying the Availability Constraint must be something that a hearer in normal circumstances is able to work out by relying on the physical surroundings of the utterance situation, on utterances exchanged during the previous conversation, and on background knowledge shared by speaker and addressee.

in Jan-Ola Östman & Jef Verschueren (eds.) Handbook of Pragmatics. 2010 Installment, Amsterdam, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2010

in C. Penco & F. Domaneschi (eds.) What is said and what is not, Stanford, CSLI, 2013

in A. Capone et al. (eds.) Perspectives on Pragmatics and Philosophy, Berlin, Springer, 2013

This article aims to investigate the notion of implicature and its connections with speaker's int... more This article aims to investigate the notion of implicature and its connections with speaker's intentions, communicative responsibility and normativity. Some scholars stress the normative character of conversational implicatures more than their psychological dimension. In a normative perspective, conversational implicatures don't correspond to what the speaker intends to implicate, but should be interpreted as enriching or correcting inferences licensed by the text. My paper aims to show that the idea of an implicature that the speaker does not intend to convey is not persuasive. In Grice's theory conversational implicatures are speaker-meant: this means that inferences derived by the addressee but not intended by the speaker should not count as conversational implicatures. On the contrary, I will claim that propositions intended by the speaker and not recognised by the addressee should count as implicatures, if the speaker has made her communicative intention available to her audience.

Etica & Politica/Ethics & Politics, XI, 1, pp. 361-368, 2009

Indexicality is at the core of many major philosophical problems. 1 In the last years, recorded m... more Indexicality is at the core of many major philosophical problems. 1 In the last years, recorded messages and written notes have become a significant test and an intriguing puzzle for the semantics of indexical expressions. 2 In this paper, I argue that a parallel may be drawn between the determination of the reference of the indexical expressions in recorded messages or written texts, and the determination of the illocutionary force of recorded or written utterances. To this aim, I will endorse the intention-based approach proposed by Stefano Predelli -and in particular his distinction between context of utterance and context of interpretation.

Synthese, 2024

Argumenta, 2022

in L. Caponetto & P. Labinaz (eds.) Sbisà on Speech as Action, London, Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming, 2023

Laterza, 2021

Topoi, 2020

Beyond Semantics and Pragmatics, 2018

Journal of Pragmatics, 2019

Grazer Philosophische Studien, 2019

EPSA Epistemology and Methodology of Science, Jan 1, 2010

Journal of Pragmatics, 2014

Philosophical Studies, 2014

in M. Sbisà & K. Turner (eds.) Pragmatics of Speech Actions, Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter, 2013

IEP – Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy , 2013

Analysis, 2008

Philosophical Studies, 2006

in Jan-Ola Östman & Jef Verschueren (eds.) Handbook of Pragmatics. 2010 Installment, Amsterdam, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2010

in C. Penco & F. Domaneschi (eds.) What is said and what is not, Stanford, CSLI, 2013

in A. Capone et al. (eds.) Perspectives on Pragmatics and Philosophy, Berlin, Springer, 2013

Etica & Politica/Ethics & Politics, XI, 1, pp. 361-368, 2009

Drawing on Austin’s speech act theory, many influential scholars view hate speech in terms of spe... more Drawing on Austin’s speech act theory, many influential scholars view hate speech in terms of speech acts, namely acts of subordination (MacKinnon 1987; Langton 1993, 2012, 2014; Hornsby and Langton 1998; McGowan 2003, 2004; Kukla and Lance 2009; Langton, Haslanger and Anderson 2012; Maitra 2012; Kukla 2014). Austin’s distinction between illocutionary and perlocutionary acts offers a way to set apart speech that constitutes subordination, and speech that merely causes subordination. In this paper I will address one of the main challenges to accounts of hate speech in terms of illocutionary speech acts, namely the Authority Problem. I will focus on Ishani Maitra’s solution to the problem, that is the idea that an ordinary speaker can come to have authority via licensing, where the audience grants the speaker the authority she lacks by refraining to challenge her speech. I will claim that what is missing from Maitra’s proposal is attention to the broader social context in which ordinary instances of hate speech are embedded, and in particular, attention to the social status of speaker, audience and bystanders.

Sistemi Intelligenti, 2015

Slurs are derogatory terms that express or convey hate or contempt towards individuals and groups... more Slurs are derogatory terms that express or convey hate or contempt towards individuals and groups of people on the basis of race, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation. In my paper I propose a strategy of treatment of appropriated uses of slurs. Targeted groups may appropriate their own slurs for non-derogatory purposes, in order to demarcate the group, and show a sense of intimacy and solidarity – as in the appropriation of “nigger” by the African-American community, or the appropriation of “gay” and “queer” by the homosexual community. In my proposal appropriated uses are conceived as echoic uses, in Relevance Theory terms: in-groups echo derogatory uses in ways and contexts that make it manifest the dissociation from the offensive contents. I will show that the echoic strategy has interesting advantages over alternative theories.

in L. Morra e B. Pasa, Questioni di genere nel diritto: implicito e crittotipi, Torino, Giappichelli, pp. 39-51, 2015

The distinction between saying and implicating is a key distinction in contemporary philosophy of... more The distinction between saying and implicating is a key distinction in contemporary philosophy of language. Nonetheless the precise nature of the two notions involved is controversial, and raises many theoretical problems. The task of this article is to introduce and critically examine some theoretical issues concerning the notions of cooperative and strategic interaction. Influential scholars as Andrei Marmor argue that legal interpretation does not follow the same principles underlying ordinary conversations, which are aimed at a cooperative exchange of information. According to Marmor, legal interpretation is a strategic, and sometimes even conflictual, type of interaction, where Grice’s Cooperative Principle does not hold. In my article I will try to show that the distinction between strategic and cooperative interactions faces two symmetrical difficulties: a) it unduly emphasizes the collaborative aspect of cooperative conversations, on the one hand; b) it unduly emphasizes the conflictual aspect of strategic conversations, on the other hand.

Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio, pp. 42-51, 2012

È solo in tempi molto recenti che la pragmatica ha cominciato a utilizzare metodi sperimentali pe... more È solo in tempi molto recenti che la pragmatica ha cominciato a utilizzare metodi sperimentali per testare empiricamente teorie contrapposte sui fenomeni comunicativi. Le teorie pragmatiche elaborate in una prospettiva cognitiva e sperimentale hanno l'ambizione di spiegare i processi comunicativi inserendoli in un resoconto plausibile non solo dal punto di vista teorico ma anche da quello empirico. In questa prospettiva, accanto a riflessioni su cosa rende possibile la comunicazione, assumono rilevanza interrogativi sui processi mentali alla base di produzione e comprensione linguistica, sulle facoltà cognitive coinvolte nei processi comunicativi e la loro interazione, sull'architettura mentale soggiacente. In questo articolo mi propongo di esaminare un caso esemplare di applicazione di metodi sperimentali a un problema pragmatico classico: le implicature scalari e in particolare l'ipotesi di una loro derivazione automatica.

Esercizi Filosofici 6, pp. 16-29, 2011

Quella di implicatura è una nozione chiave nella filosofia del linguaggio contemporanea; la sua p... more Quella di implicatura è una nozione chiave nella filosofia del linguaggio contemporanea; la sua precisa natura resta tuttavia controversa, e molti sono i nodi teorici irrisolti o problematici. In questo articolo vorrei segnalarne alcuni, che si condensano attorno alla concezione di significato del parlante e di intenzioni comunicative, e alla relazione fra dimensione normativa e dimensione psicologica delle implicature.

in A. Massarenti (a cura di), Stramaledettamente logico. Esercizi di filosofia su pellicola, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2009

Nel film Oltre il giardino , Chauncey Gardiner, misterioso uomo d'affari che si sussurra essere i... more Nel film Oltre il giardino , Chauncey Gardiner, misterioso uomo d'affari che si sussurra essere il consigliere segreto del Presidente degli Stati Uniti, interviene al "Gary Burns Show" (l'equivalente americano di "Porta a Porta", per così dire):
Gary Burns: "Visto che il Presidente l'ha citata nel suo discorso, immagino sia portato a condividere le sue idee sull'economia"
Chauncey Gardiner: "Quali idee?"
Il pubblico in studio ride e applaude, divertito dall'impietosa frecciata che Chance ha indirizzato all'inadeguatezza della visione economica del Presidente.

Che cosa fa sì che il pubblico colga l'ironia della battuta di Chauncey? In generale, cosa ci permette di capire i nostri interlocutori? Di comprendere i significati impliciti (figurati o ironici) che le loro parole veicolano? Perché i fraintendimenti sono eventi rari, riconosciuti quasi subito e risolti rapidamente negli scambi successivi? Quanto conta ciò che sappiamo o crediamo di sapere quando interpretiamo le parole di qualcuno?

in N. Vassallo (a cura di) Donna m'apparve, Torino, Codice Edizioni, 2009

Le studiose femministe hanno da sempre dedicato grande attenzione al legame fra il linguaggio e l... more Le studiose femministe hanno da sempre dedicato grande attenzione al legame fra il linguaggio e le identità di genere, e i rapporti di potere a queste sottesi. Le loro ricerche rientrano nei diversi campi dell'indagine sul linguaggio: linguistica, filosofia del linguaggio, psicologia sociale, sociolinguistica, antropologia, analisi del discorso, pragmatica. Pur nella varietà degli approcci, alcune domande ricorrono con particolare frequenza:
a) Donne e uomini usano il linguaggio in modo diverso?
b) Il linguaggio riflette – o addirittura contribuisce a creare – le disuguaglianze di genere?
c) È possibile intervenire per correggere il linguaggio sessista? È giusto farlo?
Il presente capitolo è dedicato alle risposte più interessanti fornite a queste domande.

Filosofia, LVIII, fasc. I, pp. 39-58, 2007

La filosofia del linguaggio femminista riflette da tempo sulla presunta neutralità del linguaggio... more La filosofia del linguaggio femminista riflette da tempo sulla presunta neutralità del linguaggio, cui oppone la tesi secondo cui il linguaggio codifica in realtà una visione maschile del mondo: il linguaggio, in quanto espressione della concezione maschile della realtà, renderebbe difficile o impossibile articolare immagini alternative del mondo. La tesi è una variante dell'ipotesi Sapir-Whorf sul determinismo linguistico: la nostra immagine del mondo sarebbe determinata dalle strutture del linguaggio che parliamo; i nostri pensieri sarebbero condizionati dalle categorie rese disponibili dalla nostra lingua. Sebbene affermazioni di questo tipo, specie nelle loro formulazioni più radicali, siano state criticate in modo convincente, è opportuno esaminare una particolare versione di quella tesi estrema, che considero invece interessante e meritevole di approfondimento: si tratta dell'argomento contro la pornografia formulato da Catherine MacKinnon, secondo la quale la pornografia riduce al silenzio ("silences") le donne.

Speech as action in the tradition of speech act theory includes locution, illocution, and perlocu... more Speech as action in the tradition of speech act theory includes locution, illocution, and perlocution: each of these areas is studied according to different perspectives, theoretical and applied, descriptive and experimental. In each of these areas contributions are invited, from any perspective, about speaker intention, social convention, intersubjective agreement, linguistic indicators, kinds of effects brought about, the role of norms, kinds of assessment, the role of context, accommodation effects, as well as about the appropriate model of action and conception of agency.

List of confirmed speakers:
Marina Terkourafi, Mark Jary, Mikhail Kissine, Tomoyuki Yamada, Gregory Bochner,
F. Ch. Dörge, Neri Marsili, Marcin Lewinski, Leo Townsend, Grzegorz Gaszczyk,
Chloé Muteau-Jaouen, Lucy McDonald, Mitchell Green, Jennifer Hornsby, Claudia Bianchi, Laura Caponetto, Filippo Domaneschi, Paolo Leonardi, Marco Mazzone,
Maciej Witek, Bruno Ambroise, Rae Langton, Bart Geurts.

Mimesis, 2020

Il linguaggio d'odio ha valenza performativa: non descrive né rispecchia ma crea e alimenta gerar... more Il linguaggio d'odio ha valenza performativa: non descrive né rispecchia ma crea e alimenta gerarchie sociali ingiuste. Ciò è particolarmente evidente se chi parla lo fa da una posizione di autorità. L'autorità amplifica il potere delle parole di cambiare i limiti di ciò che può essere detto e può essere fatto. Fa delle parole potenti mezzi di costruzione di una nuova normalità, mediante i quali pratiche prima ritenute illegittime vengono a poco a poco rese accettabili, non problematiche, normali. Le lezioni per la Cattedra Rotelli che Rae Langton ha tenuto presso l'Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele indagano le complesse relazioni tra parole, autorità e ingiustizia sociale, a partire da una prospettiva performativa sulla natura del linguaggio. Il volume si apre con un contributo di Langton, che ripercorre i passaggi chiave delle sue lezioni, e prosegue con alcune note critiche, in cui studiose e studiosi del panorama accademico italiano riflettono sulla proposta teorica dell'autrice.