Abstract
Kinship terminologies lend themselves better than most lexical domains to the analysis of semantic structure, but the problem is complicated by the links between terminology and other social phenomena. Theories about world-historical trends in the structure of terminologies go back to 1871, but their status remains controversial. The different structures can ideally be characterised by the types of equation and discrimination made among kin-types, and it is proposed here that the dominant trend has led away from a particular specified type of structure towards zero-equation terminologies. This evolutionary process of irreversible differentiation (sometimes complicated by the appearance of new types of equation) is comparable to what seems to have happened in some less complex lexical domains.
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