Email this article “Viaggiare fuori dai binari di genere senza deragliare”. Paretimologia di un anglismo
Abstract
The paper analyses the diffusion of the term binario (n) in its meaning related to gender identity in the Italian lexicon. In order to analyse the use of the term binario (n), different sources have been investigated, such as Italian web corpora, Google searches and contents provided by Italian youtubers dealing with gender issues. I suggest that the term binario (n), borrowed from English in its meaning of 'dichotomy' related to gender issues, has been reinterpreted in the light of a pseudo-etymology (a popular but false belief about the origin or derivation of a specific word) that involves the term binario (n) 'rails, railway'. The metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY, described by G. Lakoff, seems to play an active role in the speakers' interpretation of the construction binario (n) di genere, which can shift from the meaning of ‘gender dichotomy’ to that of ‘predetermined path (rails) in gender identity’. As a matter of fact, gender binarism is often represented as a railway system, and those who do not identify their gender in binary terms are described as passengers being derailed from their path.
References
Abdulmoneim M. S. 2006, The metaphorical concept ‘life is a journey’ in the Qur’an: a cognitive-semantic analysis, in “Metaphorik.de” 10, pp. 94-132.
Belardi W. 2002, L’etimologia nella storia della cultura occidentale, il Calamo, Roma.
Bombi R. 2005, La linguistica del contatto: tipologie di anglicismi nell’italiano contemporaneo e riflessi metalinguistici, il Calamo, Roma.
Croft W., Cruse A. D. 2004, Cognitive Linguistics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Dauzat A. 1946, L’attraction paronymique dans le français populaire contemporain, in Dauzat A. (ed.), Études de linguistique française, d'Artrey, Paris, pp. 253-261.
Della Puppa F., Miele F. 2013, Maschilità tra pubblico e privato: disuguaglianze di genere nel lavoro di cura e modelli di maschilità a confronto, in Bellè E. Poggio B. Selmi G. (eds.), Atti del Convegno “Attraverso i confini del genere. Secondo convegno internazionale del Centro di Studi interdisciplinari di Genere”, Università di Trento Press, Trento, pp. 156-175.
De Mauro T. 2005, La fabbrica delle parole. Il lessico e problemi di lessicologia, UTET, Torino.
Đinh T. M. A. 2017, An Investigation of Conceptual Metaphors Denoting “Life” in American and Vietnamese Short Stories, in “Journal of Development Research” 1, pp. 29-35.
Gusmani R. 1986, Saggi sull’interferenza linguistica, 2a edizione accresciuta, Editrice Le Lettere, Firenze.
GRADIT = De Mauro, T. (ideato e diretto da), Grande dizionario italiano dell’uso, Torino, UTET, 1999 (2003).
Katz A. N., Taylor, T. E. 2008, The Journeys of Life: Examining a Conceptual Metaphor with Semantic and Episodic Memory Recall, in “Metaphor and Symbol” 23 [3], pp. 148-173.
Lakoff G. 1994. What is a conceptual system?, in Overton W. F., Palermo, D. S. (eds.), The Jean Piaget symposium series. The nature and ontogenesis of meaning, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., Mahwah, NJ, pp. 41-90.
Lakoff G., Johnson M. 1980, Metaphors we live by, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
OED = OED Online. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/11125 (accessed May 27, 2021).
Orr J. 1954, L'étymologie populaire, in “Revue de linguistique romane” 18, pp. 129-142.
Pisani, V. (1967[19471]), L’etimologia. Storia, questioni, metodo, Paideia, Brescia.
Full Text: PDF
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
