Generally-Accepted Kinship Terms

Mandarin kinship terms are not all the same in every Mandarin-speaking region, as we mentioned in the previous chapter. Therefore, to adopt a set of “standard” kinship terms for this work is essential. However, what is the referent of “standard” we discussed here? The answer would be the “generally-accepted kinship terms” in Taiwan.

The concept of “generally-accepted” means ‘it is acceptable for most native Taiwan Mandarin speakers’. For example, liaŋ¹¹ liaŋ (孃孃) is a term refers to ‘father’s elder/younger sister’ in Jiang-Huai Mandarin (江淮官話) spoken in Yangzhou City (Jiangsu Province, China) (Wang 2013) but never be used in Taiwan, since it is impossible for a native speaker of Taiwan Mandarin to understand what this term means,

the speaker would not be likely to say it in an ordinary way, even in a generalized way.

Hence, this term is far from “generally-accepted”.

The standard kinship system we adopt in this study is taken from the Appendix of the Revised Chinese Dictionary published in 2015 (Ministry of Education, MOE), due to its widespreadness and generally-accepted status. This appendix of the Revised Chinese Dictionary lists all kinship terms of five generations, i.e., one peer generation, two generations for older relatives, and two generations for younger relatives, as shown in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1 The List of Kinship Terms of Taiwan Mandarin (extracted from Appendix of Revised Chinese Dictionary, 2015)

Generations Kinship Terms

Older Generation- II

zǔfù (祖父) ‘father’s father’, zǔmǔ (祖母) ‘father’s mother’, wàizǔfù (外祖父) ‘mother’s father’, wàizǔmǔ (外祖母) ‘mother’s mother’

Older Generation- I

bófù (伯父) ‘father’s elder brother’, bómǔ (伯母) ‘wife of father’s elder brother’, fùqīn (父親) ‘father’, mǔqīn (母親) ‘mother’, gūmā (姑媽) ‘father’s elder/younger sister’, gūzhàng ( 姑 丈 ) ‘husband of father’s elder/younger sister’, shúfù (叔父) ‘father’s younger brother’, shěnshěn (嬸 嬸) ‘wife of father’s younger brother’, yímā (姨媽) ‘mother’s elder/younger sister’, yízhàng ( 姨 丈 ) ‘husband of mother’s elder/younger sister’, jiùjiù (舅舅) ‘mother’s elder/younger brother’, jiùmā (舅媽) ‘wife of mother’s elder/younger brother’

Peer Generation

gēgē (哥哥) ‘elder brother’, sǎosǎo (嫂嫂) ‘wife of elder brother’, jiějiě ( 姊 姊 ) ‘elder sister’, jiěfū ( 姊 夫 )

‘husband of elder sister’, dìdì (弟弟) ‘younger brother’, dìxí (弟媳) ‘wife of younger brother’, mèimèi (妹妹)

‘younger sister’, mèixù (妹婿) ‘husband of younger

sister’, biǎogē (表哥) ‘son of father’s sister or mother’s brother/sister, older than ego’, biǎojiě (表姐) ‘daugther of father’s sister or mother’s brother/sister, older than ego’, biǎodì (表弟) ‘son of father’s sister or mother’s brother/sister, younger than ego’, biǎomèi ( 表 妹 )

‘daugther of father’s sister or mother’s brother/sister, younger than ego’, tánggē ( 堂 哥 ) ‘son of father’s brother, older than ego’, tángjiě (堂姊) ‘daugther of father’s brother, older than ego’, tángdì (堂弟) ‘son of father’s brother, younger than ego’, tángmèi (堂妹)

‘daugther of father’s brother, younger than ego’, fū (夫)

‘husband’, qī (妻) ‘wife’

Younger Generation- I

érzǐ (兒子) ‘son’, xífù (媳婦) ‘son’s wife’, nǚér (女兒)

‘daughter’, nǚxù (女婿) ‘daughter’s husband’, zhízǐ (姪 子) ‘brother’s son’, zhínǚ (姪女) ‘brother’s daugther’, wàishēng (外甥) ‘sister’s son’, wàishēngnǚ (外甥女)

‘sister’s daugther’

Younger Generation- II

sūnzǐ (孫子) ‘son’s son’, sūnnǚ (孫女) ‘son’s daughter’, wàisūn (外孫) ‘daughter’s son’, wàisūnnǚ (外孫女)

‘daughter’s daughter’

Notably, there are several alternative terms of address for some kinship terms, such as yéyé (爺爺) for zǔfù, nǎinǎi (奶奶) for zǔmǔ, wàigōng (外公) for wàizǔfù, wàipó (外 婆) for wàizǔmǔ, bóbó (伯伯) for bófù, bàbà (爸爸) for fùqīn, māmā (媽媽) for mǔqīn, gūgū (姑姑) for gūmā, shúshú (叔叔) for shúfù, zhízǐ (侄子) for zhízǐ (姪子), and zhínǚ (侄女) for zhínǚ (姪女). Jiějiě (姐姐) is another term of address for ‘elder sister’⁸, it

8 Meanings of jiě (姊) and jiě (姐) are not the same but their senses are equivalent while both of them refer to the older female sibling. This principle is suitable for their reduplicated forms of jiějiě (姊姊) and jiějiě (姐姐); either term refer to the older female sibling. Basically, jiě (姊) and jiě (姐) are discussed together in following chapters, the group of jiějiě (姊姊) and jiějiě (姐姐) is dealt with in the same

should also be taken into consideration. These alternative forms are also frequently used by native speakers, and we also categorize them in the generally-accepted kinship terms of Taiwan Mandarin in this study.

In addition to the disyllabic kinship terms we have just mentioned, there is a group of monosyllabic kinship terms that are inherited from older Mandarin and still being used every day; however, they are not included in Appendix of the Revised Chinese Dictionary. Due to their generally-used attribute, members of monosyllabic kinship system should be taken into consideration for our research purpose. We adopt the system of core morpheme of Chinese kinship terms proposed by Lin (1982), these kinship terms are: fù (父) ‘father’, mǔ (母) ‘mother’, fū (夫) ‘husband’, qī (妻) ‘wife’, zǐ (子) ‘son’, nǚ (女) ‘daughter’, xiōng (兄) ‘elder brother’, dì (弟) ‘younger brother’, jiě (姐) ‘elder sister’, mèi (妹) ‘younger sister’, sǎo (嫂) ‘wife of elder brother’, xù (婿)

‘daugther’s husband’, bó (伯) ‘father’s elder brother’, gū (姑) ‘father’s elder/younger sister’, shú (叔) ‘father’s younger brother’, jiù (舅) ‘mother’s elder/younger brother’, yí (姨) ‘mother’s elder/younger sister’, sūn (孫) ‘son’ son’, zhí (姪) ‘brother’s son’, and shēng (甥) ‘sister’s son’.

Also, there are several additional monosyllabic morphemes should be contained in this study for a comprehensive result, which are: yé (爺) ‘father’s father’, nǎi (奶)

‘father’s mother’, bà (爸) ‘father’, mā (媽) ‘mother’, shěn (嬸) ‘wife of father’s younger brother’, zhí (侄) ‘brother’s son’, ér (兒) ‘son’, xí (媳) ‘son’s wife’, gē (哥)⁹ ‘elder brother’, jiě (姊) ‘elder sister’.

Moreover, the influence of Taiwan Southern Min on using generalized kinship terms in Taiwan Mandarin should also be noticed. In the research of Huang (1997), she had observed the code-mixing phenomenon of generalized Taiwanese kinship terms applied in Mandarin sentences. This phenomenon reveals that using generalized kinship terms of Taiwan Southern Min in Taiwan Mandarin might not be uncommon, and to research how generalized kinship terms of Taiwan Southern Min perform in Mandarin

9 The referent of xiōng is the same with gē. It is more often used in written language. Unlike the group of jiě (姊) and jiě (姐), xiōng and gē pronounced differently and only gē has a reduplicated form: gēgē. In

context is worth our attention. With this consideration, we choose āgōng (阿公)

‘father/mother’s father’, āmà (阿媽/阿嬤) ‘father/mother’s mother’ (āmà (阿嬤) is a variation of āmà (阿媽)), āpeh (阿伯) ‘father’s elder brother’, and āyí (阿姨) ‘mother’s elder/younger sister’¹⁰, four well-known kinship terms of Taiwan Southern Min by native speakers of Taiwan Mandarin, as the targets for exploration (these kinship terms are adopted from the Dictionary of Commonly Used Words in Taiwan Southern Min (MOE 2011), slightly modified for the pinyin consistency in this study). All kinship terms we attempt to investigate are listed in Table 3.2.

Table 3.2 The Keywords List of Kinship Terms

Generations Disyllabic Kinship Terms Monosyllabic Kinship Terms

Older

10 In this study, yímā and āyí are categorized in the same group but be differentiated if necessary. Both of Peng (2003) and Wei (2003) agree that in Han dynasty, ā (阿) has been used as a preceded part of some

妹), mèixù (妹婿), biǎogē (表哥),

We have decided the generally-accepted kinship terms— both disyllabic and monosyllabic— and the next step is to collect language materials for further investigation and analyzation by extracting materials from corpora and news media.