Why should we talk about a book written in English at an Italian Language Festival (Biblioteca delle Oblate, Firenze, 1 Aprile 2023)? Because the Italian author, Massimo Arcangeli an Italian-speaking linguist and organiser of the Festival, has chosen to write in English in order to publish with international academic publisher, Peter Lang Group. This book is the first of a new format, called Vectors, which is aimed at an interdisciplinary intra- and extra-academic as well as international readership. In fact, it can be said that the first ‘inclusive’ operation of this book is to speak of the Italian language (as a metonymy of all languages) to an audience that is not necessarily Italian.
Arcangeli does this with a technical and specialised language and style but with the necessary clarifications for the non-expert. It is therefore a cultured disclosure (made by a cultured person for the cultured) that does not simplify but makes it accessible to curious readers who are not familiar with the discipline in question, in this case linguistics. Another common feature of the Vectors format is in fact the ‘compact’ paratextual apparatus, a short index, i.e. with only a few chapters (4 in this case), minimal footnotes (none in this case) to facilitate reading, and a reference bibliography for those who wish to delve deeper.
But let us come to the topic which, like many things Arcangeli does, is trendy, ultra-contemporary (to use a category used in literary studies), very topical (in the last five years there has been increased conversation about it) and also militant. Militancy is one of the characteristics required of the authors of the Vectors format, that they write on topics that provoke a discussion, that constitute as books, pamphlets, a provocation on a subject on which public opinion may be divided. Therefore, militant linguistics. Title and subtitle constitute an oxymoron in themselves: ‘Grammar without gender. How to promote inclusion without destroying languages’. The title could have been in interrogative form, but the author’s position is neither doubtful nor equivocal, it is clear-cut for the reader. Moreover, the subtitle clarifies the message, which is political (in a broad sense) and linguistic (in a narrow sense). The author, the book, are in favour of inclusion but against the destruction, demolition, and impoverishment of languages. The last word, LANGUAGES, is in the plural not only because it is a book by an Italian author addressing a non-Italian audience, but also and above all because it speaks of all languages.
The Book
The book is a linguistic manifesto that on the one hand embraces the needs of today’s evolving society, and on the other listens to the concerns of the Accademia della Crusca and language historians by placing some necessary curbs on the arbitrary and sometimes senseless frequent drifts. In short, it imposes a rule for the form while being in favour of the content it is meant to convey. These are discussions that involve all languages that have masculine and feminine and which, I can testify, even Editors take care not to overlook.
Chapter I and II
Moving to the contents, in this sense the English language helps, an index is called Table of Contents. The first chapter is on the dictatorship of political correctness as if to say that public opinion dictates (or tries to) the rules of language, the use of language: whoever does not conform to the genderless code, to schwa, to asterisks, etc. is considered politically (or rather ethically) incorrect, receiving pressure even at an institutional level (Arcangeli recalls the first speech codes in American universities, 1988 Michigan). And it is here that the linguist Arcangeli brings his erudition and authority to bear. In particular, he does so with his decisive and gentle manner in the final chapter (chapter IV) where he proposes solutions to problems and requests in favour of inclusion in various languages, a sort of handbook. Chapter II, dedicated to gender equality and inequality from the over-extended masculine (the use and rule of putting plurals that semantically include sets of men and women into the masculine) to contemporary feminism (whereby the feminine is declined as soon as possible or even when it would not be), has a historical-diachronic slant on the history of language. In this sense, the position of the moderate but attentive is to always address the feminine first and then the masculine to an audience of readers or listeners when until today, the day before yesterday, or a few years ago, the masculine included the feminine.
Chapter III
The third chapter is more technical and provides examples and data with a militant and provocative title: In the name of the neuter (and therefore in favour? the reader wonders): The schwa and other transgender graphic symbols. Transgender is a bold term, linked to topical social issues (he could have chosen UNISEX, born and used in the fashion industry in the 1980s). The schwa was originally supposed to be in the title of the book but a more cosmopolitan, inclusive slant was chosen, since schwa is purely Italian. The reading (without notes, as already mentioned) is facilitated by a rich set of tables, graphs.
I leave it to the reader to discover: is this a book in favour of linguistic inclusion? In what way can the Italian language take the lead in this small translinguistic revolution? Is it a book on the History of language, Historical linguistics or Socio-linguistics? On balance, it would also have done well in another Peter Lang Group series, one directed by Arcangeli himself ‘Storia linguistica e storia sociale. Social History of the Italian language.’
Receive more information about Massimo Arcanbgeli’s title “Genderless Grammar. How to Promote Inclusivity without Destroying Languages” here https://www.peterlang.com/document/1297221
