An Ethnosemantic Study of Affinal Kinship Terms In Arabic and Arab Culture

Abstract

This study explores the affinal (marriage kinship) relations and terminologies in Arab culture ethnosemantically. The affinal kinship terminologies represent the second basic taxonomy of kinship relations in every culture. The study includes a qualitative analysis by adopting the ethnosemantic or Cultural Domain Analysis (CDA) approach to fulfil the aims of this study. This approach helps researchers to identify and discuss the main terminologies of affinal kinship domain used in Arab culture. The study is based on data collected from the Holy Quran and some Arabic philology books. The study of this social domain in Arab culture is very useful to perceive and transfer people’s culture to other communities. Moreover, recognizing and understanding certain culture’s domains and norms may help people from other cultures avoid miscommunication or misunderstanding of other’s cultures and help use the suitable items based on certain contexts. The findings of this study emphasised the importance of studying this domain as a socio-cultural phenomenon that may help distinguish the main terminologies of marriage relations in Arab culture.