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universals and rule options in kinship terminology: a synthesis of three formal approaches
Author(s) -
WOOLFORD ELLEN
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1984.11.4.02a00090
Subject(s) - problem of universals , terminology , kinship , componential analysis , generative grammar , extension (predicate logic) , linguistics , computer science , linguistic universal , epistemology , sociology , artificial intelligence , theoretical linguistics , philosophy , anthropology , programming language
Extension rules, relational analysis, and componential analysis are integrated into a new generative model of kinship terminology focusing on the universal aspects of kin‐term systems. Widely divergent consanguineal systems (Crow‐Omaha, Dravidian, Iroquois, and Eskimo) are shown to share a substantial core of rules and to display virtually identical relationships between superordinate categories. Tax's rule of uniform reciprocals applies without exception at the proper level of abstraction. Primary differences between systems, such as cross! parallel phenomena, follow from the interaction of universal rules with a small number of rule options . [kinship terminology, universals, generative model, extension rules, relational analysis, componential analysis]