"survivor" in obituaries

[Laurence Horn]

>?The words "survive" and "survivor" are used in  newspaper obituaries
>in a meaning that is not listed in any dictionary I have consulted.
>
>Typical usages (taken from the Saturday, January 14, 2006 Buffalo News) are:
>      His survivors include <list of relatives of the deceased>
>      Survivors include <list of relatives>
>      Surviving are <list of relatives>
>      She is survived by <list of relatives>
>
>The only meaning of "to survive <someone>" that dictionaries list
>is "to outlive <someone>", that is, to be alive after someone has died.
>According to this definition, I am a survivor of anyone who is dead,
>including Pope John Paul II, Adolf Hitler, Mohammed, and Atilla the Hun.
>But newspaper obituaries use "survive" in a different sense,
>a sense that seems to requires that one also be a relative of,
>or at least a close associate of, the person who has died.
>
>Is the Buffalo News unique in using "survivor" in this restricted sense?
>Or are lexicographers negligent in not having noted this meaning?
>
>-- Mark Spahn  (West Seneca, NY)

Well, the dictionaries I looked at (for either "survive" or
"survivor") do imply *continuing* to live while another has died, so
I'm not sure you'd count as a survivor of Hitler, Mohammed, or Attila
the Hun, unless you're a lot older than I'd guess.  But you would
technically be a survivor of J2P2.  Whether you qualify for
survivors' benefits is another question.  But it's a nice case of
pragmatically triggered narrowing--the only *relevant* survivors are
the family and friends of the survivee.

Larry