[lit-ideas] The Untrained Highlander
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:11:01 EDT
>fun is still there in the wording of the link. It was just your >standard
run-of-the-mill "bone fairy lovely bairn wonderful >sword."
"bairn" is one of the most beautiful words I know.
It's used in BEOWULF, and it's the ONLY way they have in English to refer to
'offspring' without specifying the sex.
So, if you say, "Tom is my son", it means Tom is male
If you say, "Trish is my daughter", it means Trish is female
"Pat and Lindsey are my children" (is neutral as to sex)
"Pat is my bairn" is neutral as to sex.
"Pat is my child" is neutral as to sex.
The difference between 'bairn' and 'child' however seems to me that 'bairn'
does not have an implicature that the thing is a NON-ADULT.
So, if the two bairns of McDougall are playing golf, I don't need to assume
that they are non-adults.
Whereas it would be _odd_ to say that two children are playing on the
golfcourse when it happens to be the 80 and 85 year old offspring of McDougall.
Cheers,
JL
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