Government, the linguist: “President Meloni? Grammar says ‘no’, but you have the right”

According to Italian grammar, Giorgia Meloni should be called the president. But, from the point of view of social custom, if the president wishes to be indicated as the president she has the right. This is the indication of the linguist Valeria della Valle, co-director of the Dictionary of the Italian Language Treccani, who, conversing with AdnKronos, expresses herself on the request made by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to be called in the masculine rather than the feminine. “If we want to stay with the grammar and the updating of the Italian language – she affirms in fact – Giorgia Meloni must be called ‘the president’ since she belongs to the female gender as we say the judge, the rector. This is the linguistic answer”. On the other hand, from the point of view of social custom, observes the scholar, “if the president wants to be called in this way she has every right. Just as the conductor Beatrice Venezi who refuses to be called conductor and conductor has a right. she wants to be called director. Never a person who does my job would say that one use must be imposed instead of another. I only say which is the form that respects the Italian language. And if some women refuse these rules they have every right. In Italy, during Fascism, there was a linguistic policy. Now, however, we are not in Fascism: if these people like to be declined in the masculine it is their personal and ideological choice that does not correspond to the grammatical use “. The fact of declining a position to masculine or feminine, adds the linguist, “is a custom. Probably in fifty years we will no longer make these speeches because we will normally say the president, the judge, the minister and the mayor. It takes time. “, emphasizes the linguist. As for the new denomination of some ministries, such as the introduction of the Department of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, the linguist points out that “the use of the expression ‘Food Sovereignty’ to indicate the new ministry is probably influenced by of the French correspondent ‘Ministère de l’Agriculture et de la Souveraineté alimentaire’. Moreover, this expression had already been in use for some time, even by the left, to indicate the principle according to which nations must be able to define their own agricultural policy and feed according to your needs. It will be a matter of getting used to, as was the case with the term ‘resilience’ in the previous government with the ‘National Recovery and Resilience Plan’. Since then ‘resilience’ has become a very used word, by the way and inappropriately “, concludes the linguist.