SAFINA, ELENA SOFIA (2024) Exploring the applicability and effectiveness of gender-sensitive language: usage, attitudes, and cognitive aspects of grammatical gender neutralisation strategies in written Italian. [Tesi di dottorato]

Documento PDF Tesi_Safina_MGL_37.pdf Download (4MB)

Abstract

This thesis investigates some formal, social, and cognitive aspects of grammatical gender neutralisation strategies in Italian as gender-sensitive language proposals. Gender neutralisation strategies aim at obscuring grammatical gender encoding to represent all gender identities in the language. The thesis explores the applicability and effectiveness of both standard (e.g., morphosyntactic rewordings) and sub-standard strategies (e.g., the use of letters and symbols such as * or ə, to replace referents’ gender specification on nouns). Chapter 1 provides a typological analysis of gender as a grammatical category, exploring gender systems across languages and focusing on the Italian system. Chapter 2 shifts to the social implications of gender in language, discussing how linguistic practice trigger processes of subordination, invisibilisation and marginalisation of female and non-binary identities. The chapter presents two studies on sub-standard gender neutralisation strategies, a questionnaire (Study 1) and a corpus-based study (Study 2), analysing speakers’ usage and attitudes towards such new proposals. Chapter 3 adopts a psycholinguistic perspective, investigating the relationship between grammatical gender in written texts and cognitive outputs, specifically how individuals mentally represent people along with different grammatical gender encoding in the text. It explores the phenomenon of male bias, wherein masculine forms, although intended as generic, trigger male-specific mental representation, and assesses the impact of feminisation and neutralisation strategies on reducing this bias. Chapter 4 presents two experimental studies on gender inferences in Italian. Study 3 introduces an original methodology for a text comprehension task, testing the effectiveness of feminisation and standard neutralisation (achieved through the use of common gender nouns) strategies on reducing male bias in gender inferences. Study 4 test also the sub-standard neutralisation strategy by employing the symbol ə. Both experiments assess the effectiveness of different gender-sensitive strategies in eliciting balanced mental representations of mixed-gender group of people depicted by plural role nouns. Key findings from Study 1 and 2 suggest that the use of sub-standard neutralisation strategies in Italian remains sociolinguistically marked, as they are predominantly employed in informal registers, mainly in writing, and especially among younger individuals. Furthermore, the results indicate that speakers who already use such strategies in everyday language do not follow a shared norm, and the application of symbols as neutralisation shows numerous morphosyntactic inconsistencies. The sub-standard neutralisation observed in the corpus demonstrates that symbols such as schwa can introduce performative meanings and political connotations beyond a new grammatical gender value. In relation to the findings from Studies 3 and 4, feminisation strategies are the most effective in eliciting balanced mental representations of both men and women. Standard neutralisation strategies based on rewording and the use of so-called common gender nouns tend to evoke a stronger presence of men than women, while neutralisation using schwa suggests increased female visibility within the group (slight female bias). Yet, an interaction of the effect of schwa with participants’ positive attitudes towards gender-sensitive language was found.

Downloads

Actions (login required)

Modifica documento