Jesper Arent Olsson

In this paper, I propose an ambiguity account of dogwhistles that claims that some dogwhistles operate through polysemy, i.e., ambiguity between related meanings. First, I challenge Khoo’s (2017) argument against ambiguity in dogwhistles, showing that the linguistic tests he bases his argument on fail to reliably rule out polysemy. I continue by developing an ambiguity account of dogwhistles. On this account, some dogwhistles are ambiguous between a default meaning in the general language and a lexicalized dogwhistle message in a sociolect of that language. This account is then extended to explain how dogwhistle messages may spread and lexicalize in the general language community through a three-stage developmental process of (1) lexical innovation, (2) sub-community lexicalization, and (3) general community lexicalization. The paper offers a more nuanced understanding of how dogwhistles can emerge and stabilize. Finally, I discuss some consequences of the proposed account, particularly regarding how dogwhistle messages can become normalized.