The Feminine Forms of Nouns Denoting Professions in Italian FL Textbooks

Abstract

The use of feminine forms of nouns denoting professions in Italian has become a particularly important issue in recent decades. The question is only partly morphological, since the Italian linguistic system allows for the formation of feminine equivalents parallel to masculine forms; however, following social and cultural changes, the formation and use of such feminine forms have ended up being rather controversial. The aim of my research is to analyse the nouns of professions found in Italian LS textbooks, with particular attention to the representation of their feminine forms, and to examine how these textbooks address the explanations and metalinguistic issues closely related to the topic.