homophonic slurs

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Jul 21, 2007, at 9:34 AM, i quoted:

> over on the Language Log, Mark Liberman reports on an Enertainment
> Weekly story about Isaiah Washington (late of Grey's Anatomy):
>
>   http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/
>
>   Washington was not asked to return to Grey's Anatomy next season
> after a turbulent year in which he was accused of calling co-star
> T.R. Knight a homophonic slur, which he then said publicly back stage
> at the Golden Globes in January.

mark noted:

   According to my internal norms of English usage, you can call
someone a name, but you can't call them a slur. I wonder why not?

my judgment as well.  you get

   He called me a faggot/an idiot/a child pornographer/a liar/a hero/
a prescriptivist/etc.
     [note: not necessarily negative, and if negative, not
necessarily via a conventional slur]

   He called me a (bad) name/many (bad) names/some really bad
things.  [negative, and suggests, but does not require, a
conventional slur]

   He called me something really nasty/something I can't repeat/
something really congratulatory.

but i don't get

   He called me a slur/an insult/a slight/an affront/a put-down.

even things like

   He called me a dirty/bad/nasty word.

are borderline for me (though "dirty" and "bad" get *lots* of
webhits; "nasty" gets only 3).  it looks like the more specific the
second object is, the less acceptable it is.

only two webhits for {"called me a slur"}.  the first looks genuine;
the second is clearly a meta-use.

   i think he got banned cuz he called me a slur. i thought it was
funny cuz i'm a girl made him look like an ass. ...
www.softballfans.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4109738

   "The other day, a white kid called me a [slur] when I was walking
down the street. I wanted to kick him," Poindexter says. "You get
tired, so we have to ...
www.northjersey.com/ page.php?
qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkzJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2NDc5NDMz

only one relevant example for {"called me an insult"}:

   ... explained the meaning of a word used in a post directed to me
where the person was complaining about the camera and they called me
an insult in spanish. ...
www.hiway17.com/comment.php?comment.news.67

arnold

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