My son Lionel is filial

English as a Second Language
1

My son Lionel is filial.

Is “filial” used correctly, and should Lionel be set off with commas?

Thanks.

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I admit I had to look the word up. I knew very generally that it had something to do with relationships, but didn’t know the exact meaning or usage. Even after looking it up, I still don’t have much confidence.

Having said that, I think it’s used incorrectly. Every source shows it as an adjective only.

As for the commas, they are optional but I think it’s better without them. They are unneeded and don’t really add anything useful.

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I’m familiar with the word “filial”, but looked it up to see if I was missing something. It just means “like a son”. The text seems to say:
“His son Lionel is like a son.”
What?
I’ve usually heard “filial” used as an adjective describing a relationship and not a person.
“He had a filial relationship with his Uncle Bill.”

If I were writing this, instead of “filial”, I would probably use “father-son relationship”.
“He and his Uncle Bill had a father-son relationship.”

As to the commas, I believe @Anglophile addressed this a while back.
The use of commas depends on whether you are giving a name to the son or distinguishing one son from another.

  1. “His son Fred is a good student. His son Bill is not.
  2. “His son, [whose name is] Fred, is a good student.
    [See, I have learned something!]

While this use of commas makes perfect sense to me, I think, much like NN, that for my example #2, people might or might not put them in.

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