A Probe into the Form and Function of Chinese and Japanese Kinship Terms from the Perspective of Viewpoint

The present study focuses on the contrastive usage, function and cognitive viewpoint of the different forms of kinship terms between Japanese and Chinese with regard to self-directing, addressee directing and reference directing.It is found that the Chinese viewpoint is mainly related to the language form, but has little to do with the pragmatic context.The bare noun reflects a borrowable viewpoint, the direct combination form has a parallel viewpoint, and the form with ‘de’implies an intersecting viewpoint.However, the Japanese viewpoint is related to the pragmatic context, but not to the language form.The self-directing and addressee directing are borrowable viewpoints, while the reference directing is an intersecting viewpoint.The cognitive motivation of viewpoint selection is subjectivity and intersubjectivity.The direct combination form of self-directing and addressee directing shows significant intersubjectivity in Chinese.The honorific expression in Japanese is a marked form of intersubjectivity, which is most obvious in reference directing.