Openings of duty-to-say: language policies of inclusion at the National University of Cordoba.

Abstract

The growing proliferation of non-sexist uses of language has been the subject of numerous debates in recent years. Various institutions have taken a position on this issue since then, contributing to define the social validity given to experimental and novel uses of language and encouraging its dissemination -or not-. In this framework, the National University of Córdoba made history by being the first Argentine university to approve and promote the use of inclusive language in 2019.
This article consists of an analysis of documents collected during the debate around non-sexist language given at the UNC, in which disputes, social struggles and different ways of conceiving language are recorded. Based on the contributions of linguists such as Elvira Narvaja de Arnoux, Enrique Hamel and José del Valle, we are interested in the relationships between language and society that are evident in the enactment of language policies. Likewise, we will focus on the power relations that condition our speaking and writing practices in the academic field, focusing on the implications of the prohibition or permission of the use of inclusive language in university spaces.