[Lingtyp] Definition of “personal pronoun" Back to basics

[JOO, Ian [Student]]

Dear Stéphane,

thank you for your helpful explanation.
However I don’t quite follow the following statement:

That is why the same pronominal form (except for gender agreement when required) is used to refer to all kinds of nouns

Why, among all semantic properties, is gender an exception?
So suppose a certain language uses the same form for all nouns with the same social status, age (relative to the speaker), animacy, distance, etc.
Would such pronoun not fall into the definition of a pronoun because it does not “lack all the semantic richeness of the lexicon”?
If so then why is gender excluded from the “semantic richness”?

Regards,
Ian
On 9 Jul 2021, 5:04 PM +0800, ROBERT Stephane <stephane.robert at cnrs.fr>, wrote:

[https://www.polyu.edu.hk/emaildisclaimer/PolyU_Email_Signature.jpg]

Disclaimer:

This message (including any attachments) contains confidential information intended for a specific individual and purpose. If you are not the intended recipient, you should delete this message and notify the sender and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (the University) immediately. Any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this message, or the taking of any action based on it, is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful.

The University specifically denies any responsibility for the accuracy or quality of information obtained through University E-mail Facilities. Any views and opinions expressed are only those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the University and the University accepts no liability whatsoever for any losses or damages incurred or caused to any party as a result of the use of such information.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20210709/e65f164e/attachment.htm>