Who's 'they'? The rise of the gender-neutral singular pronoun

New expressions of identity generate a deal of great deal of discussion

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In its 26th annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society (ADS) has plumped for the word "they" as a gender-neutral singular pronoun.

The choice has thrown light on the English language's lack of such a pronoun other than "it". Convention has it that using "they" as a singular form of address is grammatically incorrect.

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