| In synchronic and diachronic approaches, this study targets at the essence of language and culture contact, discussing the interaction between language and culture during contact. The synchronic study provides a systematic description of the Oroqen kinship terminology, elaborating on its semantic features, morphological structures, pragmatic functions and pattern distributions, thus preparing for the diachronic study.The diachronic comparative analysis of the systems of different historical periods reveals that the Oroqen kinship terminology, instead of being a constantly unchanged stable lexical system, has gone through a systematic change from mainly a classificatory system into mainly a descriptive one. Originally a system in which the collateral kin are classified into two generations only, one older than the ego and the other younger, more than100years ago, the Oroqen system stepped on the road to a generation specific system in which seven generations are adopted for the collateral kin. What has caused such a change? A historical and ethnographic survey on the Oroqen people’s social structure, demographic composition, and contact history with the neighboring Han and Daur suggests that language and culture contact, cultural accommodation leads to the effect. Originally a hunting and gathering people in the Northeast of China and part of Siberia of Russia, the Oroqen people has gone through dramatic changes economically, socially and culturally since the17th century when the Chinese and Russian government started the military and administrative interventions in the area. The interventions opened the door of the Oroqen world to the outside. Driven by the economic profit, outsiders were brought into the living places of the Oroqen people, among whom were the Daur and Han peoples who inevitably brought in their own cultures including the kinship systems. In contact with these two cultures which comparatively are power cultures in both economic and political senses, for survival, the Oroqen culture has had to accommodate itself to the two. One of accommodating ways is marriage through which the kin terms of the two power cultures are passed on to the next generation of the Oroqen. But accommodation is not with no obstruction. The demographic composition plays an important role in helping sustain the native culture, which is the case of the Kumarchen Oroqen, who demographically outnumbers overwhelmingly the Daur or Han group, whose kinship terminology keeps more features of its original system, receiving fewer impacts from the two mentioned cultures. On this ground, it is concluded that the Oroqen kinship terminology is a historical product.The dissertation consists of nine chapters.Chapter â… introduces the objectives, significances, research questions and methodology of the study.Chapter â…¡ is a brief literature review on the research of kinship terminology and that of the Oroqen language home and abroad.Chapter â…¢, â…£,â…¤ and â…¥ are a synchronic examination of the Oroqen kinship terminology system in semantic, morphological, pragmatic and typological approaches.Chapter â…¢ examines the meaning of each kin term, meanwhile illustrates the semantic features of the system on the whole by adopting Kroeber’s8classificatory dimensions to analyze the underlying principles guiding the classification of kinship categories.Chapter â…£ proves a morphologically symmetrical distribution of some address terms whose referents are in symmetrical relation in the Oroqen kinship terminology.Chapter â…¤ focuses firstly on the functions of kinship terminology. The study shows that besides the two basic functions as vocatives and designatives which take on different lexical forms, kin terms are also used as self-address terms and social address terms to address non-kin members such as villagers and friends, and even used as a euphemism to address the bear which is highly worshipped by the local Oroqen. Then, the chapter aims at a dialectical study of the kin terms, finding that dialect differences do exist in some kin terms such as paternal and maternal sibling terms and great parent terms, though not in a systematic manner.Chapter â…¥ suggests that the Oroqen system fits in with neither of Morgan’s classificatory and descriptive types, with none of Lowie’s four models of "generational","lineal","bifurcate merging", and "bifurcate collateral". It is a combination of different types or of different models. A typological study on type distribution of the7kin groups in Murdock’s framework indicates that the parental male kin terms, the parental female kin terms and the niece terms are rare types.Chapter â…¦ is a diachronic study of the system. Through a comparative study of the systems of different historical periods, the chapter finds that the Oroqen system has experienced a dramatic change from mainly a classificatory system into mainly a descriptive system. Then it provides analysis and interpretations for the change from historical and ethnographic perspectives. Along with this dramatic change, some other rules of variation in kinship terminology are found as follows:1. The earlier system takes morpheme words as its main components rather than compound words which compose the later systems including the Bilarchen system of the20century and that of the modern time.2. Along with the increase of compound words, loan words accrue.3. There exist address variants, which result from the borrowing of different kin terms from different languages for the same kin type.4. Diachronically, the following rules of change in sound are observed: o/aâ†'(?), oâ†'(?)/a, kâ†'x, nâ†'(?),u(?)i.Chapter â…§ is an overview of the system features in terms of iconicity in cognitive linguistics and sustaining of the initial value in chaos theory. It finds that there is an unbalanced distribution of kin terms for male kin and female kin, for older kin and younger kin in reference to the ego, and that there is a constant use of the same group of kin terms which are the core for forming new kin terms, therefore considered as the initial values of the earlier system. This unbalanced distribution parallels with the Oroqen’s cultural cognition of the social status of women and men, and the social status of the old and young.Chapter â…¨ is the concluding chapter, summarizing the main theoretical findings of the study. |
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