Kinship Terms And Their Cultural Information In The Dong Language Of Rongshui County

Embodied with rich cultural information, kinship terms are regarded as the mirror of its culture in language. The existing researches are plentiful, but they have not paid enough attentions on kinship terms and their cultural information of minorities but on phonology and phonetics, grammar and vocabulary and its classification. The study on kinship terms and its culture are benefit to maintain the diversity of language and culture, strengthen national identity and understanding cultural psychology.On the basis of field work investigation and kinship terms collected in Huaibao and Antai of Rongshui County, this thesis analyzed the formation, semantic components and using rules of kinship terms and illustrated their social and cultural information of kinship terms by related theory of anthropology and anthropolinguistics.The study found that there is an abundance of kinship terms, which expressed the complicated kinship structure of the Dong people. They have adopted relatively strict using rules of kinship terms, such as respecting for seniority and ascending generations, distinguishing gender, casting no difference between paternal relatives and maternal relatives and treating lineal line and collateral line equally. The cultural information of kinship terms of the Dong people can be attributed to the marriage system, social relationships and customs, etc. Specifically, the Dong people distinguish male and female under certain condition and respect for seniors and ascending generation reveal a higher social status of seniority; their no difference between paternal relatives and maternal relatives, clan relatives and female’s frequently use of fictive kinship terms reveal the coexistence of matriarchal society and patriarchal society; the large amount of kinship terms and fictive kinship terms illustrate that the Dong people valued their social relationship.Generally speaking, the kinship terms of the Dong people are greatly influenced by their social system, civilization process, marriage system, social relations, cultural fusion and production mode.