Re: Lack of vocabulary in English?

de781_at_yahoo.com
Date: 02/17/05 

Date: 17 Feb 2005 12:43:44 -0800

Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> de781@yahoo.com wrote:
> >
> > Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> > > de781@yahoo.com wrote:
> > >
> > > > > In my family, aunt and uncle refer to, on my father's side,
cousins. I
> > > > > grew up calling one of my dad's nephews and his wife Uncle
Bill and Aunt
> > > > > Mary. The other nephew I call Uncle Sonny.
> > > > >
> > > > > Those cousins are some 30 years older than I.
> > > > >
> > > > > Nell
> > > >
> > > > How asinine! They're STILL your cousins! I may be 22 years
older than
> > > > my currently youngest first cousin, but she's STILL my cousin.
It'd be
> > > > ludicrous if she were raised to think of me as an "uncle"!
> > >
> > > I certainly would have preferred if my first cousin once removed
had
> > > called me "Uncle Peter" rather than "Peter" when we first met,
when he
> > > was 14. (He's 22 now.) (His father is my first cousin, four
months
> > > younger than me.)
> >
> > You're still his cousin, not his uncle.
>
> And I would have been very surprised indeed if he had called me
"Cousin
> Once Removed Peter"!
>
> In English, "uncle" and "aunt" can be used loosely as well as
precisely.

No one expects him to have called you "Cousin Once Removed Peter" or
anything that absurd! But, the fact of the matter remains that you
can't EXPECT your cousin to refer to you as an "uncle", when you're not
his uncle. My sisters' children will likely call me "uncle", but it'd
be absurd for my cousins' children to think of me as an uncle.

> --
> Peter T. Daniels grammatim@att.net

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