Hornsby [Anthony Baker]

I agree with the idea given by Hornsby exhibited in this quote as "When words--racist words, say-- have been used too often in a way that purports to validate the attitudes they impart, there is nothing to be done except to find different words" (Hornsby 133). This highlights natural flux of words and their meanings. It seems to sum up well how words, especially derogatory ones, can at one point time mean to convey a certain attitude, but a totally new one at a later point. However this does depend heavily on a locality context, as mentioned by Hornsby earlier on.

I can't say that there is any fundamental part of Hornsby that I disagree with, however if I were to quibble with one bit, it would be her idea that "a word with connotations carries those connotations" when put into use (140). Directly claiming this seems to bring about a contrary idea about how each person's understanding of a word, and its respective connotations may vary, even locally, so its hard to know which 'connotations' being communicated are in common from one conversation to the next.

Hornsby claims at one point that "the contours of the space of possible acts done with sentences containing particular derogatory words are discernible only from the standpoint of someone who can know what the words mean," and I would like to object on a small and fairly shaky ground, that while being in a position to understand the words requires that you know what they ALL mean, discerning some contours of this space I'd claim don't require that you know what the words mean (135). Perhaps some foreign derogatory word is spoken a certain way each time it's said to you (say the utterer yells and laughs while saying it), it follows that you may understand that you are being insulted, and that you'd respond the same way if it were to happen again.