Seminar 6 | Polysemy in the Evaluative Sphere (Talk) - 16 January, 11h00, Online

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Jan 10, 2026, 9:46:20 AM (10 days ago) Jan 10

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POLYSEMY IN THE EVALUATIVE SPHERE

Seminar 6 | Invited talk

Coining a slur: on the pejoration of 'fake news'

Louis Kohlmann (Humboldt University) & Emanuel Viebahn (University of Hamburg)

16 January 2026 | 11h00-12h30 (WET) | Online

ONLINE | LINK ZOOM

The aim of this talk is to argue that the expression ‘fake news’ has been turned into a slur: in addition to its descriptive meaning applying to pieces of information or reports, it has gained a novel pejorative meaning that slurs journalists. To this end, we survey descriptive and pejorative uses of ‘fake news’. We show that pejorative uses display features that are typically exhibited by slurs, and argue that such uses are best captured by views on which the expression has become ambiguous, with one descriptive and one pejorative meaning. Finally, we consider the process of pejoration through which ‘fake news’ was turned into a slur and how this process differs from mechanisms of reclamation.

https://ifilosofia.up.pt/activities/seminar-6-polysemy-evaluative-sphere

Seminar| Polysemy in the Evaluative Sphere: https://ifilosofia.up.pt/activities/seminar-polysemy-evaluative-sphere

Organiser: Dan-Cristian Zeman (2023.05952.CEECIND)

CEECInd research project “Slurs and the Lexicon: A Rich-Lexicon Approach to Slurs and Other Evaluative Expressions (LEXISLUR)”

RG Mind, Language and Action Group (MLAG)

Instituto de Filosofia da Universidade do Porto - UID/00502/2025

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

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