Re: kinship terms (was Re: The pitfall of Chinese/Mandarin_

Cheng Zhong Su wrote:
> Many lingust have studied the kinship names. Someone
> point out that some islanders,
Islanders?  That's terribly vague.  Wouldn't it be better to have one
word for `people of a volcanic island', another word for `people of a
coral atoll', another for `people of an island connected to mainland by
continental shelf', and so on?

> put brother and cousin
> in one word, while some northern Europe countries can
> give more detail than English,
Example?

> and scientists use
> kinship name calssify biology. All of them believe the
> more name the better.
How do you know they all believe that?

> This is the first time I heard
> some tell me the less the better.
It's good to be able to make distinctions.  It's also good not to be
required to make distinctions.

You have four words for mother's younger sister, mother's elder sister,
father's elder sister, father's younger sister -- and I can say that
too.
But can you say "aunt" without knowing (or caring) which of the four?  I
can.

Is there a word in any language for "father's second wife's former
husband's adopted daughter"?  I doubt it -- and yet I can say it with
the limited vocabulary of English.


--
Anton Sherwood  --  http://www.ogre.nu/

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