Garo Kinship Terms and the Analysis of Meaning

Abstract

In this paper I present a somewhat elaborate analysis of the meaning of the kinship terms of a single society.1 My aim, however, is not so much to present ethnographic data as to discuss a few of the problems which arise in the study of semantic systems and to illustrate a tech? nique which can simplify the analysis. I find it illuminating to compare the study of meaning to the more extensively developed linguistic study of grammar or syntax. In learning to speak a language correctly, one must learn to choose morphemes or words which are suitable both to the linguistic and to the extra-linguistic environment. A word which fits properly into the linguistic environment can be said to be grammatically correct, while a word which is appropriate to the extra-linguistic situation is semantically correct. It is entirely possible for a word or phrase to be grammatically correct but not semantically appropriate (Isn't she cute? in referring to a man), semantically understandable but grammatically wrong (Isn't her cute?), both semantically and grammatically correct, or neither. The aim of the study of syntax has been to formulate a set of rules by which it is possible to predict (or generate) the morphemes, words, or phrases which can fit together grammatically. The more complete and accurate the grammar, the more closely do the forms predicted by it correspond to those actually used or accepted by speakers of the language. Similarly, a reasonable goal of the study of semantics is to formulate a set of rules which will predict what term will be appropriate to the extra-linguistic situation. The stu? dent of kinship terminology, for instance, tries to formulate rules in such a way that from the knowledge of the relevant character? istics of a particular person (and this means that the rules must in? clude an indication of what is relevant) it will be possible to predict what term some other person will use for him. In principle, such rules must be discoverable, since all speakers of a language do in fact discover them with sufficient accuracy to make communication possible. Similarly the rules of syntax must be discoverable, since speakers of a language do discover the rules and apply them in such a way that other speakers accept their utterances as normal. The problem of what form a grammar should take has been a subject of lively debate among linguists. While this is not the place