Microaggression or misunderstanding? Implicatures, inferences and accountability

Elder, Chi-He ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3702-5397 (2021) Microaggression or misunderstanding? Implicatures, inferences and accountability. Journal of Pragmatics, 179. pp. 37-43. ISSN 0378-2166

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Abstract

This paper contributes a pragmatic perspective to the complex question of how to classify microaggressions that are committed via linguistic means. Given that microaggressions are often communicated implicitly, two key questions arise: (i) on what linguistic grounds is a recipient licensed to infer that a microaggression has been committed, and (ii) to what extent can a speaker claim they have been misunderstood and hence deny responsibility for having committed a microaggression? These questions are addressed through a discussion of the nature of implicature, inferences and accountability, highlighting that a key challenge lies in the fact that microaggressive content is typically not part of the representational content of what is achieved in interaction.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: accountability,background assumption,deniability,microaggression,misunderstanding,speaker intention,language and linguistics,linguistics and language,artificial intelligence ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1200/1203
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Language and Communication Studies
Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Area Studies
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 26 Apr 2021 23:45
Last Modified: 21 Jul 2023 09:56
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/79879
DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2021.04.020

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