Fatemeh Bahrami
Abstract
The structure and use of languages reflect the society and culture in which they are used. The present study sought to delve into the pragmatic characteristics of Persian kinship terms on the basis of McGregor (2012) model, in order to discern the sociocultural elements that has influenced their formation ...
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The structure and use of languages reflect the society and culture in which they are used. The present study sought to delve into the pragmatic characteristics of Persian kinship terms on the basis of McGregor (2012) model, in order to discern the sociocultural elements that has influenced their formation and usage. The data were collected from Great Sokhan Dictionary (2004) and the usage was checked via selected contemporary Persian films, plays, and novels. It was found that the figurative use of Persian kinship terms to refer to closeness is dominated by ideology. For instance, “paternal guardianship” and “privity” has overtly shaped distinctions in the choice of terms referring to mother’s family versus father’s family. The commonality of the use of the term “amu” (referring to one’s uncle; father’s brother) versus “dâyee” (uncle; mother’s brother) while referring to male friends for the purpose of conveying a sense of closeness is a function of “privity”. In other words, a male friend should be associated with the same gender parent (father) and not with the opposite gender parent (mother). Furthermore, there are sets of Arabic kinship terms sometimes parallel to the Persian ones which could be selected and used to convey a sense of religiosity. It can be concluded that closeness and informality versus distance and formality together with age and social status are variables that have expanded the number of Persian kinship terms.
