A morphosyntactic and socio-pragmatic study of kinship terms in Kiswahili

This study adopts contextualisation theory to examine the sociopragmatics of kinship terms (KTs) in Kiswahili. It investigates the influence of context in understanding the different meanings and functions of KTs in Kiswahili. It also examines how their morphosyntactic distribution influences their interpretation. Data were collected from interviews, non-participant observation, Jamii Forum and Facebook. The study involved 20 BA (in education) third-year students who were majoring in Linguistics and Kiswahili courses in Dar es Salaam University’s College of Education. The results show that the most commonly used KTs beyond their primary functions are those referring to immediate family members and blood relatives of the parents. KTs in Kiswahili perform various sociolinguistic and pragmatic functions such as persuading, indicating a sense of belonging, fostering social ties and addressing each other. The findings indicate that KTs in Kiswahili portray gender and power relations. In addition, context plays a big role in understanding the meaning and functions of KTs in Kiswahili. This article concludes that a comprehensive understanding of KTs in Kiswahili requires a knowledge of pragmatic, sociolinguistic and morphosyntactic patterns of KTs. This study recommends further studies to be conducted into the manifestation of KTs in different domains.