La problematica ricezione della relatività linguistica nel dibattito su lingua e rappresentazione sociale in Italia

Italy has recently witnessed a heated debate about the proposal of modifying certain aspects of lexicon, morphology, and phonetics of the Italian language. These modifications were aimed at fostering «inclusion» of given subaltern social groups, namely women and, separately, queer or non-binary people. Many among both supporters and critics of these measures of linguistic inclusion mentioned linguistic relativity as a fundamental theoretical premise of the operation. In this paper I analyze how they did so. From the analysis of the most important mentions of linguistic relativity its general reception emerges as problematic, superficial or partial, whereas it has proven to be a rich and respectable multidisciplinary research field. Finally, I clarify several widespread misunderstandings about the genesis, scope and purpose of the study of linguistic relativity.