Linguistic aspects of usage of Chinese kinship address terms as vocatives: with 姐(姐)/jie(jie)/ in Sueño de las mansiones rojas as example

Abstract

Because the Chinese kinship and the Spanish one belong to the Sudanese type and Eskimo type respectively, there is a huge asymmetry and non-equivalence in the address terminologies. Although the Chinese kinship address terms, like the Spanish ones, have vocative function in the family context as well as in the non-family one, for the linguistic and cultural difference the Chinese kinship address terms have a wider and more complicated application. The comparison between 姐(姐)/jie(jie)/ and its translation into Spanish in Sueño de las mansiones rojas has proved this peculiarity in the semantics and the pragmatics.