Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie occidentale

Journal | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie occidentale
Journal issue | 56 | 2022
Research Article | A Linguistic Perspective on Feminisation and Gender-Inclusive Language

A Linguistic Perspective on Feminisation and Gender-Inclusive Language

How Partitive Constructions Can Be Used to Uncover Implicit Gender Bias in Italian

Abstract

This article reports the results of a study on the perception of feminisation and gender mismatches in Italian. The study probes the intuition of native Italian speakers through tasks that highlight their linguistic habits. The results point to two separate but interrelated reflections. First, they show that semantic gender can override grammatical gender in partitives. Second, they reveal that the acceptance of feminine profession nouns is not widespread, especially for those nouns that refer to prestigious professions. The work presented here stems from an Italian adaptation of a study originally designed for French and German.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Aug. 1, 2021 | Accepted: July 8, 2022 | Published Sept. 19, 2022 | Language: en

Keywords Gender agreementGender-fair languagePartitive constructionsGender mismatchFeminisation


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