IS THE POPE A BACHELOR?

Extracted text from http://virtuallinguist.typepad.com/the_virtual_linguist/2008/10/is-the-pope-a-bachelor.html:

The virtual linguist SEARCH

ARCHIVES January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 November 2016 October 2016 CATEGORIES Dictionaries Grammar Miscellaneous Other languages Pronunciation Texting Words and phrases BLOGROLL A Walk in the Words David Crystal's blog Language hat Language Log Lexiophiles Literal-Minded Proud pieriansipist Sentence First separated by a common language Wordskit links Pagans and heathens | Main | Scousers and Dicky Sams

October 07, 2008

IS THE POPE A BACHELOR?

It's not that easy to write dictionary definitions, even for seemingly straightforward words. A commonly cited example in linguistics textbooks is the word bachelor. Most peopledefine a bachelor as an unmarried man, as do Collins and Chambers dictionaries. But is a divorced man a bachelor?Many people would say 'no',even though a divorced man isunmarried. Perhaps that's why the New Oxford Dictionary of English's definition is 'a man who is not and has never been married'.

Fine. Perhaps that should be the standard definition of a bachelor. But what about a 17-year-old schoolboy? Is he a bachelor? When asked this question, most people dither, even though a 17-year-old schoolboy is probably not and hasprobably never been married. 17-year-olds can marry but perhaps you think the OED's definition of bachelor is the best one so far- 'an unmarried man (of marriageable age)'.

Well then, is the Pope a bachelor? He is certainly unmarried, has never been married and is of marriageable age, but most people feel uneasy calling him a bachelor; it doesn't seem appropriate. Theword 'bachelor' doesn't seem to apply to a man who has taken a vow of celibacy.

What about a man in his fifties, say, who is not married, has never been married, but has lived happily with his partner and children for 25 years and intends to carry on doing so. He ticks all the boxes for bachelor, too, but, again, it seems odd to call him one.

Are gay men bachelors if they have never been married? That's another tricky question which people find difficult to answer unequivocally.

Despite all of these examples which don't fit the standard dictionary definition, most people seem quite happy with what's in the dictionary ie 'an unmarried man'. We don't expect our dictionaries to go into every nuance and exception to the rule; we are happy to accept that the dictionary definition is that of a prototypical bachelor. The reason we are happy to do this is that we have a vast repository of cultural knowledge which relates to the word bachelor - we know that young boys, gay men and Roman Catholic churchmenare generally not defined by their marital status. What we do when we accept a dictionary definition, according to cognitive semanticists, is, not takethe wordsliterally, butuse the definition as a promptto help us construct a meaning for the word based on context.

Posted at 10:23 PM in Dictionaries, Miscellaneous | Permalink

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

I thought never-married gay men would definitely qualify as bachelors; indeed, for some speakers, confirmed bachelor is code for gay.

Posted by: Neal Whitman | October 26, 2008 at 03:41 AM

I think that the 'gay' sense of 'confirmed bachelor' is a bit dated now. George Clooney was recently described as a confirmed bachelor in the (London) Sunday Times. 'Gay' wasn't meant in that instance.

Posted by: Virtual Linguist | October 26, 2008 at 10:13 PM

Bachelor implies the ability to have been married, I think. Nowadays that's problematic for gay men.

Posted by: The Ridger | November 13, 2008 at 01:57 AM

Yes, that's a good point. It's the opposite of what Neal Whitman above said, which shows how hard the dictionary-writer's job is.

Posted by: Virtual Linguist | November 13, 2008 at 09:07 AM

The comments to this entry are closed.

Subscribe in a reader Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

ABOUT