Mistaken identity - part one

[carin_in_oh]

No: HPFGUIDX 80576

Lilian wrote:

> Curious (oh, and BTW, do you notice that JKR 
> said 'them'. Not her – not him either, but that's
> another discussion 
> entirely – but THEM. Plural, two persons at least). Very curious 
> indeed.

A minor comment from me:

Just on this point of JKR's usage: She routinely & everywhere uses forms of "they" as the gender-neutral 3rd person singular pronoun, even when it's very clear from 
context that she must have a particular gender or even a particular individual in mind. 

So I don't think we can build the argument on the pronoun.

(My first post, btw, and lest everyone think I'm a hopeless niggler, I should explain that I teach the history of the English language and I'm consititutionally incapable of not noticing drifts in usage)

Carin