Linguistic Sexism: from Alma Sabatini’s Studies to Italian L2/FL textbooks

Abstract

Linguistic sexism is a phenomenon that occurs in the use of certain elements of language in a discriminatory way, primarily due to the androcentric nature that characterizes culture and society and is reflected in language, resulting in gender disparities, the marginalization of women, and uncertain use of certain expressions. The teachings of linguist Alma Sabatini, published in the mid-1980s, systematically identified "grammatical asymmetries" related to sexist language use in the Italian language for the first time. Through an investigation into the language used in the media and job advertisements, Sabatini identified categories related to generic male language and agentive forms that conceal the female presence, which still serve as a fundamental reference point for the study of linguistic sexism in all contexts. In this current study, we analyze an Italian as a foreign language manual, applying the categories identified by Sabatini, with the aim of identifying various aspects related to sexist language use in the Italian language. The results show that virtually all indicators are identifiable in the examined manual, which, on the one hand, demonstrates the validity of the analytical tool and, on the other hand, highlights the need to renew teaching materials while considering the insights offered by the historical linguist in her research.