Linguistic Diversity in Kinship Terminology: A Study of Cultural Evolution Across Regions

Abstract

The study explores the kinship terms in context of linguistic diversity in order to comprehend that how culture shapes the meanings of these terms across different languages. The basic objective of the study is to evaluate the structural patterns of these terms and to find out how these meanings got diversity over time. This study adopts the Semantic Frame Theory of Fillmore (1982) along with the Conceptual Metaphor Theory of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980). The integration of these theories explores the cultural and intellectual mechanisms which reflect the linguistic change in these terms. A comparative study on linguistic grounds explores that the core terms remain consistent across all languages while variations have been observed in extended family terms that shows the diverse social practices and cultural evolution in languages. These findings explore that kinship terminologies are not stagnant but evolve as a result of the changings in the social norms. This study offers a great contribution to the field of linguistics as it shows the interplay between the meanings and cultural factors. The research offers meaningful insights to the linguists, cultural historians as it provides a relationship of the language, culture and society. Finally, this study highlights the value of the semantic theory in highlighting the cultural values and it provides a framework for future researchers to study language in relation to the cultural context and social contact.