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

[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.... ;-)