a high-ranking government official or a powerful businessman). Finally, the "V" term is used only with social superiors (including elders); unfamiliar people perceived to be of similar or lower social standing to the speaker are addressed with the T term . Hebrew In modern Hebrew, there is a T–V distinction used in a set of very formal occasions, for example, a lawyer addressing a judge, or when speaking to rabbis. The second person singular (, masculine) or (, feminine) are the usual form of address in all other situations, e.g. when addressing ministers or members of the Knesset. The formal form of address when speaking to a person of higher authority is the third person singular using the person's title without the use of the pronoun. Thus, a rabbi could be asked: (, "would the honorable rabbi like to eat?") or a judge told: (, "his honour is considering my request"). Other persons of authority are normally addressed by their title only, rather than by name, using the second person singular. For example, officers and commanders in the army are addressed as (, "the commander") by troops. In non-Hebrew-speaking Jewish culture, the second-person form of address is similarly avoided in cases of higher authority (e.g., a student in a yeshiva would be far more likely to say in a classroom discussion "yesterday the Rav told us..." than "yesterday you told us..."). However, this usage is limited to more conservative (i.e. Orthodox) circles. Dravidian Tamil In Tamil, the second-person singular pronoun நீ and its derived forms are used to address children, (younger or very close) members of the family and to people who are younger than the speaker. The second person plural pronoun நீங்கள் is used to address elders (also within the extended family), teachers, people who are older than the speaker and anyone whom the speaker does not personally know, especially in formal situations. However, in Sri Lankan Tamil dialects, the second person plural pronoun நீங்கள் is used in colloquial situations as well. Sino-Tibetan Chinese Chinese culture has taken naming and forms of address very seriously, strictly regulating which people were permitted to use which terms in conversation or in writing. The extreme example is the 1777 execution of Wang Xihou and his entire family and the confiscation of their entire estate as his penalty for writing the Qianlong Emperor's personal name as part of a criticism of the Kangxi