The System Of Kinship Terms In Chinese:a Linguistic Study

Kinship terms are used by relatives to address or refer to each others. This kinship relation can result from 1) blood relationship (filiation etc.) 2) marriage 3) some kind of legal procedure (this last case being only of minor importance). Kinship terms form a basic component in a language lexicon. In the case of Chinese this system is already reflected to a certain extent in early oracle bones inscriptions. Due to the tight control exerted on it by the patriarchal clan system, the system of kinship terms in Chinese is highly complex. To various kinds of kinship relations correspond their respective appropriate kinship terms, but besides it happens frequently that the same kind of relative is addressed or referred to with several different kinship terms, and also that the same kinship term may refer to several different kinship relations, showing thus an extremely intricated and complex terminological network. Furthermore, various factors such as the availability of many ancient Chinese documents covering a wide historical range, a huge dialectal variety, and many sociological, cultural and pragmatic phenomena bearing direct influence on the use of the terms of address, combine to make this highly complex system of kinship terms even more opaque and difficult to handle. Hence, a clear description of the kinship term system, ~that.could shed new light onits sources and its historical development, is both meaningful and necessary. A thorough research, both in synchrony and diachrony, lead us to the following results. Firstly, the kinship terms, though complex, show a definite structure, with neat and consistent patterns, its details reflecting accurately the Chinese patriarchal clan system. The large numbers of terms attested is due to a number of various reasons. Secondly, there are more than 3000 kinship terms in Chinese, but the number-of its basic-components (morphemes) is limited. Thirdly, modern dialects show significant variations, that are most conspicuous between the southern group 8nd the northern group. Fourthly, despite a few thousands years of evolution, the kinship term system attested in the written documents has kept the same basic features. This reflects the stability of the core vocabulary despite the many changes observed in the spoken forms. Lastly, the kinship term system is still evolving, part of the old kinship terms have gone out of use, and new kinship terms with new usage are being created everyday. Such innovations enrich the whole system by creating variety and satisfying the various language usage needs.