Found this paper by Catasso: Encoding Nonbinary Reference in Syntax: The German Neo-Pronoun xier and Socially Driven Language Change. I think, it analyses how the neopronoun xier structurally works within German grammar. The methods are used to compare it to English singular they and Italian ze. I need a T-shirt with formula (28). Still chuckling even though that’s just straight forward notation. Read it at: https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/10/9/220
![Screenshot from the paper with a mathematical formular called (28):
Summing up the foregoing discussion, German xier — and, incidentally, also Italian ze, which is not the primary focus here—does not simply omit binary gender values but encodes a positively specified, interpretable [GENDER] feature whose value explicitly excludes [MASCULINE] and [FEMININE]. This exclusion is not an output of underspecification or morphosyntactic default, but a grammatically encoded presupposition that the referent is non‑binary or otherwise non‑classifiable under binary gender categories. The semantic contribution of xier can be approximated as in (28):
(28) [[xier]] = λx: ¬binary(x). x
‘The individual x such that x is not classifiable under binary gender distinctions.’
This presuppositional profile sets xier apart both from semantically ambiguous forms and from ϕ‑complete but referentially minimal pronouns. For example, German es is ϕ‑complete but typically associated with non‑individuated or inanimate referents, while English singular they, although compatible with nonbinary reference, does not necessarily presuppose it. In contrast, xier encodes a referential constraint that is both semantically specific and pragmatically regulated: its use is felicitous only in discourse contexts where the referent’s nonbinary identity is accessible or inferable.](https://www.annaheger.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/screenshot_20251008_011552_bluesky5464561680334886447.png)