Mixed person plurals: gender & the (in/ex)clusive distinction; ...

In a message dated 8/9/2005 5:25:42 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
tomhchappell@YAHOO.COM writes:

>The table she gives is (77) on her page 111.
>The genders are Feminine (F), Masculine (M), and Common (C).
>Common gender is used for groups which contain individuals of more
>than one individual gender.
>I am not sure what she, or perhaps it is Guldemann (Guldermann?),
>means, by the 3rd person singular common gender; does that mean
>neuter? or non-human? or inanimate?
I assume she has the usual meaning in mind: a "common genrder" 3sg would be
used when one does not know or does not care to specify whether the
person/thing referred to is masculine or feminine (or possibly something else).  In
English, we have masc, fem & neuter 3sg pronouns.  The lack of a common 3sg pronoun
leads people to use "they" in the singular, or say "he or she" or write
"(s)he" etc.

Doug

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