The Study of Cultural Connotation of Kinship Term between Chinese and English

The Study of Cultural Connotation of Kinship Term between Chinese and English

By Chen Xingyi

In partial fulfillment of the requirement

For the B. A. degree

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

May, 2016

Acknowledgments

First of all, I would like to express my great respect and heartfelt thanks to my supervisor——Professor Xiong Mingli. This dissertation is completed under the guidance of her. Her profound professional knowledge, rigorous academic attitude and easygoing personality have influenced me a lot. I have built up great learning objectives and mastered basic research method under her patient guidance. She has devoted great effort in the research. I appreciate it very much.

Second, I am also deeply indebted to all teachers who directly or indirectly do a favor in the preparation and writing of this paper.

Last but not least, thanks for my beloved friends and lovely roommates, for their support, understanding and encouragement through all the stages of the thesis.

The Study of Cultural Connotation of Kinship Term between Chinese and English

Chen Xingyi

Department of English

School of Language and Culture

Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

Abstract: As one of the closest relationships amid mankind, kinship plays an essential role in the society. On the linguistic aspects, words that are used to describe a subject will be more abundant as the subject is more important. Different kinship terms symbolize different cultural connotations that provide the basis for the study of cultures. Many studies of kinship just focus on one language rather than the comparison between two languages. studies comparing the kinship terms of two languages often focus on the linguistic difference and the non-correspondence of the two target languages. This essay illustrates the underlying meaning that kinship terms show and the differences of cultural connotations between kinships in China and western countries.

Key words: kinship term, cultural connotation, social system

摘要：亲属关系作为人类关系中最亲密的一种关系，在社会中扮演着很重要的角色。不同的亲属词象征着不同的文化内涵，也为我们学习文化提供了基础。对亲属词进行的研究，通常只是对一种语言进行分析，而不是将两种语言进行比较，将两种语言进行比较的也是在语言以及语意是否对等方面进行比较。 本文阐述了亲属词所传达的根本的涵义以及中英文所代表的不同的文化内涵。

关键词：亲属词，文化内涵，社会制度

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………............................1

2. The definition of kinship term in both China and western countries……………….1

2.1．The definition of kinship term in China………………..........................…..1

2.2．The definition of kinship term in western countries …………….............….2

2.3 Reasons that make definitions different between Chinese and English……...2

3. Examples of Chinese and English kinship term…………………………………….2

3.1 Chinese kinship term…………………………………………………………2

3.2 English kinship term…………………………………….........................……4

3.3 Comparison of Chinese and English kinship terms…………………………..5

3.3.1 Similarities between Chinese and English kinship terms………………5

3.3.2 Differences between Chinese and English kinship terms………………5

4. Cultural connotation of Chinese and English kinship terms………………………..7

4.1. Cultural connotation of Chinese kinship terms……………………………….7

4.1.1. The cultural connotation of Chinese kinship terms in the ancient time.7

4.1.2. Partially changed connotation of kinship terms nowadays …………...8

4.2 Cultural connotation of English kinship terms………………………………...8

4.3 Comparison of Cultural connotation of Chinese and English kinship terms….8

5. Reasons of the difference of cultural connotations between Chinese and English…9

6. Conclusion………………………………………………………..............................9

7. References................................................................................................................10

1. Introduction

We can not tell when kinship term appeared as there is no exact evidence yet. But we can determine that it has a very long history. Thousand years ago, a scientific kinship term system had been established in the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells. The fourth chapter of Erya is Shiqin which discussed kinship terms systematically for the first time. In recently years, there are many dictionaries about kinship terms published such as Kinship Term Dictionary(Bao Haitao, 1988;Wang Anjie,1988), Kinship Term in Ancient and Modern Time Dictionary(Zhang Xiaozhong,1988), Chinese Kinship Term Dictionary(Cai Xiqin,1994), Kinship Term in A Dream of Red Mansions and Chinese Traditional culture of Kinship Term(Zhang Yan, 2005).

Through former researches involving Preliminary Study of Kinship Term (Kong Lingfeng, 2004), The Comparison of the Meaning between Chinese and English Kinship Term (Yang Hua, 2006), The Study of Chinese Kinship Term Translation in A Dream of Red Mansions (Chen Aixia, 2013), The Study of Kinship Term in All Men Are Brothers in Pragmatics Aspect (Nan Jiangyu, 2013) we can know the importance of kinship term.

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