Kinship Term

This paper provides a brief overview of some of the works by Anna Wierzbicka devoted to the study of kinship terms in different languages and cultures (Wierzbicka 2016a, 2016b, 2017). The paper considers the approach of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM), proposed by Wierzbicka for describing the semantics of kinship terms based on the use of lexical universals and shows the advantages of this approach in comparison with other methods of analysis. It demonstrates advantages of this method over other methods of semantic analysis, including overcoming eurocentrism tendencies in the analysis of kinship terms.

From kin term to discourse marker: The case of bâbâ 'father' in Modern Persian

Abstract
The issue addressed in this article concerns the synchronic variations and diachronic development of bâbâ 'father' as a discourse marker in Modern Persian which reflexively comments on the utterance and thus supports the interpretation thereof. Based on empirical analysis of spoken colloquial Persian, web-interactions and written texts, we aim to examine the current use of bâbâ not just as a concrete, referential kinship term but as an interjection functioning as a discourse marker being highly grammaticalized and to discuss the relationship between issues of grammaticalization and pragmaticalization. We argue that the present multifunctionality of bâbâ can be traced back to its pragmatic function, encoding positive politeness style of mitigation which within Iranian society is pervasive in intimate conversation. In this way, addressing a stranger by a kinship term, interpreted as an opener and endearment, can be polite by stressing in-group affiliation. Through this semantic-pragmatic change, it is illustrated that how a propositional meaning evolves toward a pragmatic and intersubjective use while losing part of conceding meaning but still preserving original meaning potentials. In the next step, bâbâ develops to a discourse marker with a procedural meaning, operating on the discourse organizational level and contextualizing the reading of the successive utterance in relation to the foregoing interaction. On the basis of a conversational corpus study, this paper reveals the emergence of a highly grammaticalized category of discourse marker through a kinship term displaying a range of functions which signal heightening the intensity of responsive markers, lowering the intensity of meaning, exclamation, utterance initiation and strengthening the meaning of the verb, all representing some type of not arbitrary relation, which in this case is intimacy. The development from a concrete referential meaning to an interpersonal marker of politeness and then to an expressive, subjective and metatextual meaning with a wider scope and a greater speaker-oriented perspective can be determined by being located on grammaticalization cline extending from a content word to a fully-fledged discourse marker which is characterized by related unidirectional shifts of decategorization, increase of pragmatic function and scope (from sentential to extra-sentential, discourse and speech act level), persistence (finding features of traditional meaning which in this case is the intimacy emotion of a kinship term), fixation (semi-fixed position which leads to inserting the discourse marker bâbâ just in initial or final positions) and erosion (phonological reduction of bâbâ to bâ). Furthermore, we show that the cline of referential kinship term> marker of politeness> discourse marker copes with gramaticalization from the point of view of pragmatics. However, we propose that the tapering domain of grammaticalization, based on semantic and morphosyntactic criteria on the sentence-syntactical level may follow pragmaticalization, the process encompassing the emergence of discourse/ pragmatic markers on discourse-pragmatic level. The high frequency of this type of usage in Persian conversation can be seen as a reflection of Iranian cultural values, which place a premium on maintaining the appearance of an intimate, hospitable and cooperative behavior.