@inproceedings{corvi-etal-2025-taxonomizing,
title = "Taxonomizing Representational Harms using Speech Act Theory",
author = "Corvi, Emily and
Washington, Hannah and
Reed, Stefanie and
Atalla, Chad and
Chouldechova, Alexandra and
Dow, P. Alex and
Garcia-Gathright, Jean and
Pangakis, Nicholas J and
Sheng, Emily and
Vann, Dan and
Vogel, Matthew and
Wallach, Hanna",
editor = "Che, Wanxiang and
Nabende, Joyce and
Shutova, Ekaterina and
Pilehvar, Mohammad Taher",
booktitle = "Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2025",
month = jul,
year = "2025",
address = "Vienna, Austria",
publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2025.findings-acl.202/",
doi = "10.18653/v1/2025.findings-acl.202",
pages = "3907--3932",
ISBN = "979-8-89176-256-5",
abstract = "Representational harms are widely recognized among fairness-related harms caused by generative language systems. However, their definitions are commonly under-specified. We make a theoretical contribution to the specification of representational harms by introducing a framework, grounded in speech act theory (Austin 1962), that conceptualizes representational harms caused by generative language systems as the perlocutionary effects (i.e., real-world impacts) of particular types of illocutionary acts (i.e., system behaviors). Building on this argument and drawing on relevant literature from linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics, we provide new definitions of stereotyping, demeaning, and erasure. We then use our framework to develop a granular taxonomy of illocutionary acts that cause representational harms, going beyond the high-level taxonomies presented in previous work. We also discuss the ways that our framework and taxonomy can support the development of valid measurement instruments. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of our framework and taxonomy via a case study that engages with recent conceptual debates about what constitutes a representational harm and how such harms should be measured."
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<abstract>Representational harms are widely recognized among fairness-related harms caused by generative language systems. However, their definitions are commonly under-specified. We make a theoretical contribution to the specification of representational harms by introducing a framework, grounded in speech act theory (Austin 1962), that conceptualizes representational harms caused by generative language systems as the perlocutionary effects (i.e., real-world impacts) of particular types of illocutionary acts (i.e., system behaviors). Building on this argument and drawing on relevant literature from linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics, we provide new definitions of stereotyping, demeaning, and erasure. We then use our framework to develop a granular taxonomy of illocutionary acts that cause representational harms, going beyond the high-level taxonomies presented in previous work. We also discuss the ways that our framework and taxonomy can support the development of valid measurement instruments. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of our framework and taxonomy via a case study that engages with recent conceptual debates about what constitutes a representational harm and how such harms should be measured.</abstract>
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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Taxonomizing Representational Harms using Speech Act Theory
%A Corvi, Emily
%A Washington, Hannah
%A Reed, Stefanie
%A Atalla, Chad
%A Chouldechova, Alexandra
%A Dow, P. Alex
%A Garcia-Gathright, Jean
%A Pangakis, Nicholas J.
%A Sheng, Emily
%A Vann, Dan
%A Vogel, Matthew
%A Wallach, Hanna
%Y Che, Wanxiang
%Y Nabende, Joyce
%Y Shutova, Ekaterina
%Y Pilehvar, Mohammad Taher
%S Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2025
%D 2025
%8 July
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C Vienna, Austria
%@ 979-8-89176-256-5
%F corvi-etal-2025-taxonomizing
%X Representational harms are widely recognized among fairness-related harms caused by generative language systems. However, their definitions are commonly under-specified. We make a theoretical contribution to the specification of representational harms by introducing a framework, grounded in speech act theory (Austin 1962), that conceptualizes representational harms caused by generative language systems as the perlocutionary effects (i.e., real-world impacts) of particular types of illocutionary acts (i.e., system behaviors). Building on this argument and drawing on relevant literature from linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics, we provide new definitions of stereotyping, demeaning, and erasure. We then use our framework to develop a granular taxonomy of illocutionary acts that cause representational harms, going beyond the high-level taxonomies presented in previous work. We also discuss the ways that our framework and taxonomy can support the development of valid measurement instruments. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of our framework and taxonomy via a case study that engages with recent conceptual debates about what constitutes a representational harm and how such harms should be measured.
%R 10.18653/v1/2025.findings-acl.202
%U https://aclanthology.org/2025.findings-acl.202/
%U https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2025.findings-acl.202
%P 3907-3932
Markdown (Informal)
[Taxonomizing Representational Harms using Speech Act Theory](https://aclanthology.org/2025.findings-acl.202/) (Corvi et al., Findings 2025)
ACL
- Emily Corvi, Hannah Washington, Stefanie Reed, Chad Atalla, Alexandra Chouldechova, P. Alex Dow, Jean Garcia-Gathright, Nicholas J Pangakis, Emily Sheng, Dan Vann, Matthew Vogel, and Hanna Wallach. 2025. Taxonomizing Representational Harms using Speech Act Theory. In Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2025, pages 3907–3932, Vienna, Austria. Association for Computational Linguistics.