Saw that Merriam-Webster now lists “They” with the singular pronoun use. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-m...ter-adds-non-binary-prounoun-they-dictionary/
I mean, its just a fact isnt it? Nice to see some progress in these regressive times, no matter how small.
As a human I am all for non-gendered pronouns. As a linguist I bemoan the overloading of a pre-existing word. Celebrate real-world ambiguity but resist syntactic ambiguity! Just for curmudgeonly example, here is a real newspaper quote: "Officials say a Spirit Airlines flight leaving Las Vegas was briefly delayed after a passenger removed all their clothes while boarding and approached a flight attendant." [Washington Post, 30 July 2017]. When I first read it, I thought "their" referred to "Officials". Which led to an even more bizarre image than the sentence intended. Well, much as I deplore throwing singulars and plurals into a linguistic blender, I am more of a descriptivist. Language is what people say. And write. For example, "alot" looks like a mistake now, but I bet it will become as valid as "another".