Editing They (section)

== Semantics ==
Plural ''they''<nowiki/>'s [[referent]]s can be anything, including persons, as long as it does not include the speaker (which would require ''[[we]]'') or the addressee(s) (which would require ''[[you]]''). Singular ''they'' can only refer to individual persons. Until the end of the 20th century, this was limited to those whose [[gender]] is unknown (e.g., "Someone's here. I wonder what ''they'' want"; "That person over there seems to be waving ''their'' hands at us.").<ref>{{Cite thesis |type=PhD |last=Lagunoff |first=Rachel |title=Singular They |date=1997 |publisher=University of California, Los Angeles}}</ref>

===Generic===
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The pronoun ''they'' can also be used to refer to an unspecified group of people, as in "In Japan ''they'' drive on the left", or "''They''<nowiki />'re putting in a new restaurant across the street." It often refers to the authorities, or to some perceived powerful group, sometimes sinister: "''They'' don't want the public to know the whole truth."