A Study On The Kinship Terms Based On The Tones Of Other Relatives In Modern Chinese

As a special part of kinship terms, kinship terms based on the tones of other relatives indicate such a language phenomenon that the speaker address his or her own relatives not based on the kinship, but based on the relationship between others (also his or her relatives) and the one the kinship term indicates.Kinship terms based on the tones of other relatives, as a subsystem of the vocabulary of Chinese language, are established and developed closely connected with the social life, cultural heritage and ethical psychology of Chinese people. The patriarchal clan system, ethics and morality, marriage system, family system and so on exert effect on them. As the carrier of the kinship, kinship terms based on the tones of other relatives connote profound language signals, reflects intimacy, alienation, euphemism, prejudice, compassion and so on.We can classify kinship terms based on the tones of other relatives from different perspectives. If we classify them according to the"other relatives", there are such kinds as kinship terms based on father/mother, husband/wife, elder brother/elder sister, younger brother/younger sister, son/daughter, nephew/niece and grandson/ granddaughter.Kinship terms based on the tones of other relatives can be classified into two kinds from the perspective of their internal structures: single structure and complex structure. The kinship terms with single structure are as the same as the normal kinship terms. They can be distinguished only according to the specific context. For example, in the kinship terms based on husband/wife, the terms the wife uses to address the relatives of the husband are the same as the ones the husband uses, their differences are the specific relationships. The term with complex structure is constructed by a core of kinship term with the definitive part (sometimes structural auxiliary) ahead; that is to say, it is constructed by an attribute and a headword.Kinship terms based on the tones of other relatives possess profound pragmatics values such as denoting person, family position, age, role recognition, personal relationships and so on, embodying the intimacy and alienation, power and other relationship in communication, conveying such psychology as personal passion, communication motives and politeness.