I mean, yeah, that’s why I’m asking. Since it’s beneficial to have several pronouns based on a person’s intrinsic characteristics, a genderless society would also end up with several - but the question is, what would they base these pronouns on? Their age? Their role in society? Their personality?
There are some interesting comments about how other languages do it in other threads.
Here’s one more idea - is this person present or not during the conversation
Edit to expand on the idea:
We can have 3 pronouns
Person participates in the conversation
Person doesn’t participate but is somehow involved with speakers and conversation (like talking about a friend, or a customer that bothered you at work)
Talking about someone in an abstract sense. Like when writing about a celebrity, or a biography, or describing someone’s life (even if a friend)
At the very least in the number, English and its almost non existent verbal conjugations is awful in that regard. When someone says you I need quite some context to know if it is talking to me or to a group of people where I’m included, it is even worse with they.
Linguistics, just like in our world. The purpose of pronouns is to reduce repetition in speech and writing.
Additional gendered aspect is there for easier disambiguation between multiple people’s pronouns when mentioned in the same context.
I mean, yeah, that’s why I’m asking. Since it’s beneficial to have several pronouns based on a person’s intrinsic characteristics, a genderless society would also end up with several - but the question is, what would they base these pronouns on? Their age? Their role in society? Their personality?
There are some interesting comments about how other languages do it in other threads.
Here’s one more idea - is this person present or not during the conversation
Edit to expand on the idea:
We can have 3 pronouns
You can just as easily do without any gendered pronouns, like some languages do already
At the very least in the number, English and its almost non existent verbal conjugations is awful in that regard. When someone says you I need quite some context to know if it is talking to me or to a group of people where I’m included, it is even worse with they.