THE USES OF NOUNS AS PERSONAL PRONOUNS IN THAI LANGUAGE LEARNING MATERIALS FOR FOREIGNERS

Abstract

This research has the objectives to study the uses of nouns as personal pronouns in Thai language learning materials designed for foreigners. This research was a qualitative study using the concept of social linguistics. Collection of data from conversations in textbooks during the year 2000-2021. and collected data from conversations in social media as of December 31, 2021, which are media used to learn Thai for foreigners learning using English and Chinese by analyzing content. Write a descriptive narrative and present it together with relevant data tables. Statistics used in data analysis are frequency and percentage.

The results showed that there were 10 types of nouns that were used as personal pronoun, namely: 1) kin terms 2) pseudo kin terms 3) teknonymy terms 4) Names of persons 5) occupation terms 6) Prefixes, titles, positions 7) Sentiment words or phrases 8) Foreign loan words 9) Words used for speaking to monks 10) Royal words. In addition, it was found that the first three nouns used as personal pronouns in descending order were names of persons, pronouns used for relatives and pronouns used for occupations. Furthermore, the least used words were words used for speaking to monks and royal words due to there were few situations involving monks and the royal family in the learning materials. It also found that the use of nouns used as personal pronouns in Thai depends on social and cultural factors. The social factors included gender, age, relationships between interlocutors in the topics of roles namely acquaintance and intimacy as well as formal and informal occasions. The cultural factors included seniority, humility, respect, praise and honor, affection, kinship, etc