childfree

[Jonathan Lighter]

There's an interesting Gricean aspect to the Wiki quote.

Ordinarily one would expect some substantive comment under a heading like
"Personal Life." For example, Costello is married, but her husband goes
unnamed and is mentioned only briefly under "CNN."

The article appears to define her "personal life" solely on the basis of
whether she has children. One has to assume that her apparently
insignificant husband has no children either.

Again ordinarily, one tends to assume from a newspaper-style bio that if no
children are mentioned, the subject (or couple) has no children. In this
case, it is the absence of children that is highlighted.

Until recently, English was unable to express the idea, by one word, that a
person, by choice and preference, has no children. To say "Costello is
childless" would be literally true but because of the historical
associations  of "childless," it would also sound rude, condescending, or
pathetic. One would have to say - if one had to say anything - "Costello
has no children." Stated baldly, even that observation seems to carry a
negative charge.

In any case, absence of children might be a peculiar fact to select as the
*sole* relevant information in a under the rubric of "Personal Life."
Undoubtedly it is an artifact of the wiki format: simply plugged in without
regard to balance or context. But stated so bluntly in the biography of a
public figure, it sounds - intentionally or not - as a deliberate plug for
the "childfree" movement.

I mean, "sounds to old people."

JL


On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 2:32 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: childfree
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Eh. For me, it didn't have pejorative implications. I web-know people who
> have described themselves as child-free, with (iirc) an amplification that
> while they are that way by personal choice because it works best for them.
>
> Mark
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 11:00 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu
> >wro=
> te:
>
> > And that 98% figure would have fit pretty well.  In some places, even
> > ninety-nine and forty-four percent pure, if anyone else remembers the old
> > Ivory Snow line=E2=80=A6
> >
> >
> > LH
> >
> >
> > On Jan 31, 2014, at 10:50 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
> >
> > > Certai.nly was the first thing that came to *my* mind. I started
> > > imagining German maps circa 1942-3
> > >
> > >    VS-)
> > >
> > > On 1/30/2014 7:43 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> > >> Or "Judenfrei".
> > >>
> > >> LH
> > >
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