Is Slur a Linguistic Category?
The relevance of the research is due to the recent increased interest of Western linguists and philosophers of language in slurs (racial, homophobic and other offensive verbal labels). The aim of the study is to find out whether slurs in the Western authors’ interpretation are a linguistic category and an element of the linguistic scientific paradigm. The research objectives are to conduct a critical analysis of scientific definitions of slurs; to identify the main scientific concepts associated with them; to trace how the worldview positions of the authors influence their interpretation of the phenomenon under study. The hypothesis of the study is as follows: the interpretation of slurs by Western scientists is often conditioned by the ideology of identity politics. Critical analysis of the discourse of scientific texts was used as the main method. The results of the study suggest that slur as it is presented by most Western scholars is not a linguistic category, as it is based on extra-linguistic factors.