Thai Impersonal Pronouns and Language Power

Authors

Kitima Indrambarya

Publication Date

2015-01-01

Abstract

Impersonal subjects are subjects unspecified for their reference. While previous analyses identified man 'it' and kha@w as non-referential subject in Thai co-occurring with impersonal verbs (Indrambarya 1996, 2011, Phimsawat 2011), there exists the use of third person pronoun thân 'they' as an impersonal pronoun. This paper aims at investigating how the three impersonal subjects in Thai exhibit the distance between speakers and reflect the language power inherited in different language registers. The result shows that the use of the impersonal pronouns thân 'they' and kha@w 'they' are much more limited than man 'it'. The pronoun thân 'they' is the most distant and the most powerful among the three impersonal pronouns. While the impersonal pronouns thân 'they' and kha@w 'they' covey the gaps between users leading addressees to follow what is to be done, the impersonal pronoun man 'it' brings speakers closer to addressees for more consolidation.

First Page

14

Last Page

28

Recommended Citation

Indrambarya, Kitima (2015) "Thai Impersonal Pronouns and Language Power," Manusya, Journal of Humanities: Vol. 18: No. 21, Article 2.
Available at: https://digital.car.chula.ac.th/manusya/vol18/iss21/2