ABSTRACT
Japanese referential and address kinship terminology may be differentiated. Referential kinship terms follow relat.ively cOlllll1on organizational parameters, with the ma,ior complication in the sphere of ingroup and outg~oup distinctions. Although there are addit.ional complications when a third person's kin are being referred to, the basic dichotomy is between humble forms, used for ingroup (=first person), and elegant forms, llsed for outgroup (=second person). The complications for thi rd person arise as II result of individual preferences in characterizing that person as an ingroup member or not [see, among ot.hers, Mi llcr 1967:275ffJ.
