Language of the news media in Thailand
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Wilaiwan Khanittanan
Abstract
This article examines the unique style shift in news stories in the Thai news media. The language of the headlines is colloquial, casual, familiar, and at times stigmatized, while the language used in the body of the news is formal, formulaic, and pertaining to the written language. The lead is a mixture of both high and low varieties of Thai. Style shift is interpreted as being influenced primarily by inner context, the structure of the news. The shift is set in the structure. The headlines use Low Thai, while High Thai is to be used in the body of the news. Outer contextual features such as audience or speech-act factors do not have any effect on the shift.
© Walter de Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- History of foreign language education in Thailand until World War II
- Lexical innovation and “the genius of the Thai language”
- Language of the news media in Thailand
- Discussing assimilation and language shift among the Chinese in Thailand
- Principles of Thai place-name formation: a reflection of natural and cultural heritage
- Endangered languages of Thailand
- Thai political slang: formation and attitudes towards usage
- Animate classifiers in Tai languages
- Does the number of speakers of a language determine its fate?
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- History of foreign language education in Thailand until World War II
- Lexical innovation and “the genius of the Thai language”
- Language of the news media in Thailand
- Discussing assimilation and language shift among the Chinese in Thailand
- Principles of Thai place-name formation: a reflection of natural and cultural heritage
- Endangered languages of Thailand
- Thai political slang: formation and attitudes towards usage
- Animate classifiers in Tai languages
- Does the number of speakers of a language determine its fate?