everybody...their

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>>>>"A player has to be responsible for their actions in this league." --
>>>>Ernie Grunfeld
>
>>"No mother should be forced by federal prosecutors to testify against
>>their child." -- Monica Lewinsky's mother's attorney

And to complete the 3rd-person singular paradigm, I heard on the idiot box
last night ("Animal Planet") [exact wording not guaranteed]:

"Remember this when you leave your pet to make their own entertainment." --
narrator [showing 'candid' videos of pets engaged in solitary play]

Looks like a reflexive pronoun to me, genitive/possessive in these three
examples. A reflexive pronoun would not tend to require gender or number
marking.

However, the motivation in the TV example might be related to the question
of whether (in the context) the animal is worthy of "his"/"her" rather than
"its".

-- Doug Wilson