A production grammar for Burmese kinship terminology

Previously, J. Lambek and others have used Production Grammars to study the kinship terminology of English, Hindi, Sanskrit, and Malagasy (Lambek 1986 ; Lambek and Lambek 1981; Bhargava and Lambek 1983, 1992). A similar techni que is applied here to the kinship terminology of Burmese. A complete produ ction grammar is given, with structure rules to generate possible kinship d escriptions, appropriate reduction rules, and morphological rules. Cousin s uffixes are dealt with. Comments on the rules are included. Following Caldw ell (1986), a computer program is used to check the production grammar and to generate sample derivations, a selection of which are included in order to demonstrate the functioning of the grammar.