homophonic slurs

[Wilson Gray]

What's up with "The other day, a white kid called me a [slur] ..."  I
don't understand how this makes sense in the context of the other
examples. Is that supposed to be
" ... called me a slur ..."?

-Wilson

On 7/21/07, Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: homophonic slurs
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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