I think you might mean third person neuter, no?
Well, yes and no (hence my edit) I guess I really meant the 2nd person. In the third person they
could be referred to as
'the customer' or such like. When addressing them
directly how would one address a person if Sir or Madam was precluded and a degree of formality was required - thank you
'esteemed customer'? I guess that works but ... Most (but not all) 'formal' titles in English
are gender based. It could be easier to omit the title entirely of course but that ducks the issue raised by the OP when that wasn't an 'option'.
And anyway - 'gender' is a grammatical concept and I doubt worms give a shit - being male and being female is a question od 'sex', not 'gender' - strictly speaking. Unless the meaning of the word has changed since I was schooled.
Yes ... but I'd argue it also depends on how one defines and uses the term
gender:
Gender
• noun 1 [SIZE=-1]Grammar[/SIZE] a class (usually masculine, feminine, common, or neuter) into which nouns and pronouns are placed in some languages. 2 the state of being male or female (with reference to social or cultural differences). 3 the members of one or other sex.
[SIZE=-1]— DERIVATIVES[/SIZE] gendered [SIZE=-1]adjective[/SIZE].
[SIZE=-1]— USAGE[/SIZE] The words gender and sex both have the sense ‘the state of being male or female’, but they are typically used in slightly different ways: sex tends to refer to biological differences, while gender tends to refer to cultural or social ones.
[SIZE=-1]— ORIGIN[/SIZE] Old French gendre, from Latin genus ‘birth, family, nation’.
OED
I
was using it in a primarily sexual context, that in the absence of gender,
'sex' has a somewhat different meaning for worms than humans. It was a throwaway comment really. :smile: