Pedantics

[eldar]

Please take the following three lines, and imagine that you know nothing of the composition of the Family Rosoff:

Alexis - That would be etc.
Carly - That would be Alexis's youngest sister.
Jen - That would be Alexis's eldest sister.

Now tell me, based entirely upon those three statements, what you know about Alexis, Carly, and Jen, and their relative ages.

My answer would be:
Alexis, Carly, and Jen are sisters. Alexis (and thus Carly and Jen) have at least two sisters. Carly is younger than Jen. Alexis and Jen have no sisters who are younger than Carly. I have no idea if either Jen or Carly is either younger or older than Alexis.

P.S. Let arosoff know your views as well :)

Comments

[elethe.livejournal.com]

They could well have more sisters. Carly is Alexis' youngest sister, and Jen Alexis' oldest, but Alexis could have many sisters who are not as young nor as old as Carly and Jen.

Alexis could still have younger and older sisters who are not the youngest or the oldest.

Alexis could be the middle child of ten - it does not say Alexis doesn't have more sisters, it certainly doesn't say these are Alexis' only siblings. Even if Jen is the oldest sister and Carly the youngest, that doesn't mean they are the oldest children in the family.

And Alexis is also a boy's name - so there may only be two girls in the family.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

What they said. It certainl doesn't say that either Carly or Jen is older than Alexis, but it does imply that if Jen is younger, then so is Carly.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_kent/]

Based purely on the three statements...

Alexis has two sisters. Carly is younger than Jen.

That's it. You don't know how much younger Carly is than Jen, you don't know if Carly and Jen are, in fact, sisters (i.e. they may all be half-sisters with Carly and Jen sharing no parents, they might be adopted sisters of separated parents, you don't know). You certainly don't know Alexis's age in comparison to her sisters. You may be younger than your youngest sister, or older than your oldest sister.

Having typed it so often, the word sister now has no meaning for me.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_kent/]

Ooops. Of course, there may in fact be *more* sisters.

[clarisinda.livejournal.com]

I too have sisters, both of whom are younger than me, and I have the same problems trying to define them in relationship to me without having to stop to explain...

My youngest sister is easy to describe - and if people don't have the common sense to assume that she's younger than me, their pedantry is their own problem.

My other sister, the middle of us three siblings is more difficult to refer to succinctly. My "middle sister"? My "older younger sister"?

If only she'd been a boy like she was supposed to have been, it would all have been a lot simpler.

[skorpionuk.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I would assume "Alexis' youngest sister" to mean "younger than Alexis", and certainly "youngest of all of them", and ditto for "eldest".

Not knowing what order they were born in, I would suggest the following:

If it's Alexis, then Jen, then Carly, it would be "Jen is Alexis' younger sister" and "Carly is Alexis' youngest sister".

If it's Jen, then Alexis, then Carly, it would be "Jen is Alexis' elder sister" and "Carly is Alexis' younger sister".

Well you did ask for pedantry.... ;-)

[arosoff.livejournal.com]

My 2p:

1, reality: When using "youngest" and "eldest" in reference to siblings, the comparison is usually taken to be within the ENTIRE set of siblings.

2, logic: I only have 2 sisters. In a set of 2, you can't use a superlative; you can only use a comparative. Since you did use a superlative, you have to assume the existence of a 3rd member of the set. Either I have more sisters or you're including me. And if you switch to a comparative, you go back to problem 1, in spades--if you say "elder sister" it's always assumed to be relative to the sibling.

There are 2 potential solutions:

1: Jen is Alexis' younger sister.
Carly is Alexis' youngest sister.
(Which is what I usually say)

2: Jen is the elder of Alexis' sisters (which makes it clear that she's only the older of the two, and makes no reference to me). If you want to be totally pedantic, she's "the elder of my two younger sisters".