The Definition and Typological Model of a Dogwhistle

Witten, Kimberly

doi:10.1590/0100-6045.2023.V46N3.KW

Kimberly Witten

Independent Researcher, Manchester, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland research@witten.kim

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0823-8828

1.	Intentionality: A dogwhistle is a speech act that is intentional, and often premeditated. The speaker’s intent to dogwhistle can range from conscious to subconscious. As intent cannot be proven, a speaker always has plausible deniability of dogwhistling.
2.	Purpose for Dogwhistling: A dogwhistle is motivated by a compelling reason; there must be a point to constructing and sending a dogwhistle message.
3.	Interpretation: A dogwhistle must have at least two salient, plausible interpretations, differing in some manner involving either meaning or function.
4.	Linguistic Packaging: A dogwhistle can be a single lexical item, an utterance, or even a series of utterances (e.g., forming a theme or narrative).
	• The token encompassing the dogwhistle will be referred to as the speech act.
	• At least two interpretations must be readily available from ONE speech act.
5.	Audience Design: There exists a general audience for the dogwhistle message and it has at least one subset audience; defined here as the ‘target audience’. This audience is distinct from rest of the general audience with respect to common ground.
6.	Target Audience: The target audience members are the intended recipients of the dogwhistle message. Members of the general audience that are not also members of the target audience are defined as ‘general receivers’. Members of the target audience are ‘target receivers’.
7.	Method of Concealment: The audiences must differ with respect to common ground (e.g., through shared knowledge, identity, or affiliation) and the speaker must design the speech act so that this difference is capitalized upon in that speech act; this can be done overtly or covertly.
8.	Degree of Concealment: The dogwhistle message must be sufficiently coded to not reveal itself to general receivers of the message. In some cases, this degree of concealment extends to target receivers too-it may be preferable that the speaker designs and conceals the dogwhistle message to reduce the possibility of the target audience being consciously aware that they are receiving a dogwhistle message.
9.	Motivation for Concealment: There must be compelling reason to keep the dogwhistle message hidden from general receivers.
10.	Coherence & Relevance: Speakers must make sure that both interpretations of the speech act are cooperative and meet the needs and expectations of all likely receivers, (Grice, 1975GRICE, H.P. Logic and conversation. In: Steven Davis, ed., 1991, Pragmatics, D305-R315. New York. Oxford University Press, 1975.). Messaging consistent with what we know about the speaker is insurance that a dogwhistle will not be discovered, e.g., speakers over-attuning to their target receivers run the risk of sounding incoherent to general receivers.
11.	Next Turn Proofs: Messages must be designed, packaged, and delivered in a way that is likely to elicit the same response from the receivers of different audiences, regardless of interpretation(s). That is, the next turn proofs must be unmarked.

Criteria	Dogwhistle failure points
7. Method of Concealment	If the common ground is not capitalized upon sufficiently or meaningfully in the construction of the message, the dogwhistle may fail to be received as intended.
8. Degree of Concealment	If the dogwhistle message is not sufficiently coded, it may be revealed to unintended audiences.
10. Coherence & Relevance	If a speaker doesn’t attune to coherence and/or relevance properly when designing their message, the dogwhistle may be revealed to unintended audiences.
11. Next Turn Proofs	If a speaker doesn’t account for likely next turn proofs from their audiences when designing their message, the dogwhistle is at greater risk for being revealed to unintended audiences.

Criteria	Dogwhistle	Innuendo	Pun	Inside Joke
1. Intent:	Necessary	Optional	Optional	Necessary
2. Purpose:	Necessary	Necessary	Necessary	Necessary
3. Interpretations:	Yes; 2 or more	Yes; 2 or more	Yes; 2 or more	No; 1 or more
4. Same Linguistic Packaging:	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
5. Audience Design:	At least 2	1 or more	1 or more	1 or more
6. Target Audience:	Yes; subset	Yes; same	N/A	Yes; subset
7. Method of Concealment:	Common Ground	Varies	Common Ground	Common Ground
8. Degree of Concealment:	Necessary	Optional	None	None
9. Motivation for Concealment:	Necessary	Necessary	None	Optional
10. Coherence & Relevance:	Necessary	Necessary	Optional	Optional
11. Next Turn Proofs:	Aligned	N/A	N/A	N/A

Criteria	Dogwhistle	Evaluation
1. Intent:	Necessary	We can assume that the show writers have intent.
2. Purpose:	Necessary	To entertain adult viewers while also protecting younger viewers from content that is inappropriate for their age
3. Multiple Interpretations:	Yes; 2	Yes. General interpretation is humorous oversight. Target interpretation is sexual innuendo.
4. Same Linguistic Packaging:	Yes	Yes. Both meanings are a result of lines 1-3.
5. Audience Design Req’s Met:	Yes	Yes. Children and adult viewers comprise separate audiences.
6. Target Audience:	Yes; subset	Adult viewers are a subset of the general audience.
7. Method of Concealment:	Common Ground	The dogwhistle is based on extra common ground available to the adult audience only.
8. Degree of Concealment:	Necessary	The dogwhistle is sufficiently concealed.
9. Motivation for Concealment:	Necessary	Due to the sexual nature of the target interpretation (an innuendo), the motivation to conceal it is high.
10. Coherence & Relevance:	Necessary	General and target interpretations are both relevant to their respective audience(s).
11. Next Turn Proofs:	Aligned	Both next turn proofs are aligned (laughter is the expected response).
Result:	Criteria Met	This is a successfully designed dogwhistle.

Criteria	Dogwhistle	Evaluation
1. Intent:	Necessary	We assume that the film writers have intent.
2. Purpose:	Necessary	To entertain adult viewers while also protecting younger viewers from content that is inappropriate for their age.
3. Multiple Interpretations:	Yes; 2	Yes. General interpretation is humorous oversight. Target interpretation is a joke of sexual nature.
4. Same Linguistic Packaging:	Yes	Yes. Both meanings are a result of line 9
5. Audience Design Req’s Met:	Yes	Yes. Children and adult viewers comprise separate audiences with different common ground knowledge.
6. Target Audience:	Yes; subset	Adult viewers are a subset of the general audience.
7. Method of Concealment:	Common Ground	The dogwhistle is based on extra common ground available to the adult audience only.
8. Degree of Concealment:	Necessary	Sufficiently concealed with the aim for target receivers to be aware of the message.
9. Motivation for Concealment:	Necessary	Due to the sexual nature of the target interpretation (an innuendo), the motivation to conceal it is high.
10. Coherence & Relevance:	Necessary	General and target interpretations are both relevant to their respective audience(s).
11. Next Turn Proofs:	Aligned	Both next turn proofs are aligned (laughter is the expected response).
Result:	All criteria met	This is a successfully designed dogwhistle.

Criteria	Dogwhistle	Evaluation
1. Intent:	Necessary	As advertising is very deliberate and backed by market research, we can assume a high degree of intent.
2. Purpose:	Necessary	To connect with lesbian and gay audiences while not alienating straight audiences who may hold negative biases or prejudices toward LGBTQ+ identities.
3. Multiple Interpretations:	Yes; 2	Yes. General interpretation is an invitation to go outdoors. Target interpretation is akin to ‘we see you, we get you.’
4. Same Linguistic Packaging:	Yes	Yes, both meanings are recoverable from the single tagline.
5. Audience Design Req’s Met:	Yes	Yes. Straight and LGBTQ+ people comprise separate audiences with differing common ground knowledge.
6. Target Audience:	Yes; subset	LGBTQ+ people are a subset of the general audience.
7. Method of Concealment:	Common Ground through identity	The dogwhistle is based on higher salience of ‘out’ referring to identity (rather than outdoors) for the LGBTQ+ audience only.
8. Degree of Concealment:	Necessary	Sufficiently concealed with the aim for target receivers to be aware of the message.
9. Motivation for Concealment:	Necessary	As Subaru is aiming to appeal to multiple audiences with messaging that resonates deeply (and specifically) to each, without alienating the others, the motivation to conceal potentially controversial messaging is high.
10. Coherence & Relevance:	Necessary	General and target interpretations are both relevant and coherent to their respective audience(s).
11. Next Turn Proofs:	Aligned	Both next turn proofs are aligned (identification with the message is the expected response).
Result:	Criteria Met	This is a successfully designed dogwhistle

Criteria	Dogwhistle	Evaluation
1. Intent:	Necessary	Yes, we are assuming that the speaker is seeking a sex worker.
2. Purpose:	Necessary	To discreetly connect with a sex worker.
3. Multiple Interpretations:	Yes; 2	Yes. The general interpretation is a finance specialist. The target interpretation is a sex worker.
4. Same Linguistic Packaging:	Yes	Yes, both meanings are gleaned from ‘accountant’.
5. Audience Design Req’s Met:	Yes	Yes, people in the sex work industry are separate from the general audience and the algorithm and they have common ground knowledge about the alternative meaning of ‘accountant’ that these other audiences do not.
6. Target Audience:	Yes; subset	Yes, people in the sex work industry are a subset of the general audience.
7. Method of Concealment:	Common Ground	The dogwhistle is based on shared repertoire within industry about how to talk about services.
8. Degree of Concealment:	Necessary	Highly concealed (and unmarked), with the aim for target receivers to be aware of the message.
9. Motivation for Concealment:	Necessary	Very high. Human general receivers may find the message offensive owing to the stigmatized nature of sex work. Algorithms could recognize the message and take punitive action.
10. Coherence & Relevance:	Necessary	Both general receivers and target receivers find the request unassuming and inoffensive.
11. Next Turn Proofs:	Aligned	Yes. If applicable, further inquiries may be made.
Result:	All criteria met	This is a successfully designed dogwhistle.

Criteria	Dogwhistle	Evaluation
1. Intent:	Necessary	We can assume intent, as this phrase is keeping with a major marketing campaign at the time.
2. Purpose:	Necessary	To reassure his Christian supporters that he is one of them, to comfort them during this tragedy.
3. Multiple Interpretations:	Yes; 2	Yes. General interpretation is that this just a momentary pause in a larger story. Target interpretation is that this is part of God’s Plan.
4. Same Linguistic Packaging:	Yes	Yes. Both meanings are a result of line 20.
5. Audience Design Req’s Met:	Yes	Yes. Christian supporters and secular people are separate audiences with different common ground knowledge.
6. Target Audience:	Yes; subset	Christian supporters are a subset of the general audience.
7. Method of Concealment:	Common Ground	The dogwhistle is based on extra common ground knowledge available to followers of Christ.
8. Degree of Concealment:	Necessary	Sufficiently concealed with the aim for target receivers to recognize the message.
9. Motivation for Concealment:	Necessary	To avoid overt religious messaging, which may alienate the general audience.
10. Coherence & Relevance:	Necessary	This is weak, as the general message comes off as insensitive to many hearers.
11. Next Turn Proofs:	Not aligned	Next turn proofs are not aligned - the target audience has been over-attuned to, leaving general receivers possibly confused and searching for relevance.
Result:	Criteria insufficiently met	This is a dogwhistle, but not a successfully constructed one; criterion 11 is misaligned.

Criteria	Dogwhistle	Evaluation
1. Intent:	Necessary	As advertising is very deliberately crafted and Trump approves this message (and it is consistent with a history of similar dogwhistle messages by him), we can assume he has intent (Marshall, 2016MARSHALL, J.. Trump Rolls Out Anti-Semitic Closing Ad. Talking Points Memo. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-rolls-out-anti-semitic-closing-ad. November 5, 2016. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/tru... ).
2. Purpose:	Necessary	To establish his views and promote the Jewish conspiracy.
3. Multiple Interpretations:	Yes; 2	Yes. General interpretation is that his opponent is corrupt. Target interpretation is that his opponent is part of the Jewish conspiracy to steal your money.
4. Same Linguistic Packaging:	Yes	Yes. Both meanings are a result of line 26.
5. Audience Design Req’s Met:	Yes	Yes. Trump’s base and general audience (Democrats, other Americans, non-Americans) are separate audiences with different common ground knowledge.
6. Target Audience:	Yes; subset	Trump’s base is a subset of the general audience.
7. Method of Concealment:	Common Ground	The dogwhistle is based on extra common ground knowledge available to his followers.
8. Degree of Concealment:	Necessary	Sufficiently concealed with the aim for target receivers to be explicitly or implicitly aware of the message; some supporters may wish exercise plausible deniability if challenged directly about their views.
9. Motivation for Concealment:	Necessary	To hide the full offensiveness of the invective, even from portions of the target audience that don’t want to consciously realize the racial resentments, stereotypes and harmful attitudes contained within.
10. Coherence & Relevance:	Necessary	General and target interpretations are both relevant to their respective audience(s).
11. Next Turn Proofs:	Aligned	Both next turn proofs are aligned to the expected reactions to his statements.
Result:	All criteria met	This is a successfully designed dogwhistle.

[TFN1] Note: Criteria that differ from dogwhistles are shaded grey.

Brasil

Brasil

The Definition and Typological Model of a Dogwhistle

Abstract