Linguistic Relativity and Gender Inclusive Language: General remarks upon the debate on Italian

This paper aims at accomplishing three tasks. The first one is mainly descriptive. I will describe the main stages and features of the debate, both academic and public, around some proposals for modifying the Italian language in a more gender-inclusive way. The second task of this paper is metatheoretical. I will focus on how in the Italian debate references were made to linguistic relativity which I consider a fundamental premise of this operation of linguistic reform. The third task is theoretical. Leaving aside the debate on Italian or any other specific language, which merit is there to the fundamental idea? What do contemporary psycholinguistics tell us about this issue?