note on "bastard"

[Laurence Horn]

At 8:04 PM -0400 5/10/11, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>At 5/10/2011 02:44 PM, victor steinbok wrote:
>>I vote for "inconsequential"--female bastards could not--or were not likely
>>to--inherit.
>
>Neither could male bastards, I believe.
>
>Joel

I thought Victor's point was that a bastardess in question wouldn't
have been in a position to inherit in the possible world in which her
parents were married when she was conceived or born (depending on the
definition), assuming she was still female in that possible world.
On the other hand, the male bastard would have been, whence the
relevance of *his* but not *her* parents' marital status at the
relevant time.

LH


>
>>In most cases, they were not likely to be admitted either.
>>
>>VS-)
>>
>>On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 1:35 PM, Jonathan Lighter
>><wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>  We know that illegitimate children played villains in English literature
>>>  for
>>>  centuries - especially sons, perhaps because female bastardy was too
>>>  horrible to think much about (or too inconsequential? Dunno.). ...
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org