Abstract and Key Words

Abstract: Kinship address term refers to those words and expressions identifying the relationship of members within one family. Different languages have their own kinship address term systems. The differences between English and Chinese in kinship address term are analyzed from three aspects. In Chinese, the address term for the paternal and maternal relations are clearly distinguished but in English, this difference is not emphasized. In Chinese, the number of address term for women relatives is smaller than that for men relatives. But in English, male and female relatives are equally addressed. Besides, age is also an important factor in determining the address term in Chinese but not in English. The differences of kinship address term between English and Chinese are influenced by the degree of attention paid to blood relationships, value orientation and so on. However, the cultural differences between English and Chinese also lead to the differences in their address term systems.

Key words: differences; kinship address terms; maternal and paternal relations; male and female relations; age

摘要： 亲属称谓语是定义家族成员之间关系的用语。不同语言有自己特定的亲属称谓语系统。英汉语言在亲属称谓语系统上存在各种差异。在汉语亲属称谓中，称谓语有父系和母系之分，而在英语中的亲属称谓语没有这个差别。汉语中用于女性的亲属称谓语远比用于男性的少。在英语中，所有兄弟姐妹的称呼都是平等的，没有年龄的大小之分。英汉在亲属称谓语方面的差异受对血缘关系重视程度和价值取向等方面的影响，而中英两种文化在这些方面的差异也造成了两种亲属称谓语系统的差异。

关键词：差异；亲属称谓语；母系和父系；男性和女性；年龄

1. Introduction
With the rapid development of globalization, cross cultural communication becomes more and more common. Cross-cultural differences often bring barriers for people in such communication. The kinship address system, a common phenomenon in communication in all cultures, is a major part among such differences. It is also one of the most important parts of language system and reflects the relationship between an addresser and an addressee, their identity, family and social status as well as their likes and dislikes (Li Hong, 2009).
As far as the address term systems in English and Chinese are concerned, they do not always have equivalent with each other. Thus, it often forms a trouble area in English learning for Chinese learners of English.
Since kinship terms are a basic phenomenon in language, it is necessary to have a thorough study of the differences of the two address systems and terms in English and Chinese and to investigate the causes of such differences so that Chinese learners of English can improve the knowledge and awareness in this respect, and better cope with cross-cultural communication concerning address terms.