กลวิธีการบอกเลิกสัญญาในภาษาไทย : กรณีศึกษาผู้ฟังที่มีสถานภาพต่างกัน / เพชรีภรณ์ เอมอักษร = The strategies of cancellation in Thai : a case study of hearer of different status / Petchareeporn Am-Ugsorn
The aim of this research is to examine the linguistic strategies used by speakers of different social status in the speech act of cancellation in Thai. The data was elicited by means of questionnaire which included 6 situations. The respondents were 200 students from secondary schools and universities in Bangkok, Ayutthaya and Suphanburi areas. It is found that Thai speakers of three groups adopted 18 linguistic strategies to perform the act of cancellation. Most of them preferred politeness strategies to direct strategies. Furthermore, the finding indicated that the cancellation complied with values in Thai culture such as value of keeping a promise; Thai people believe that whenever they tell or make a promise, they have to keep it. If they fail to keep their promise, they are blamed to be an untrust fellow. Moreover, Thai speakers also placed value on the concept of /rak saa nam cay/ ‘maintaining smooth interpersonal relationship’. It is found that most of the speakers preferred to provide a reason together with an apology to show that they really had to perform the act of cancellation even though they did not want to. It is also found that the status of the speakers was one of many factors in strategy selection. That is, for the speakers of lower status, 16 strategies were adopted and the most preferred was providing a reason. For the speakers of higher status, 11 strategies were selected and the most adopted was postponement. For the speakers with the same status as the listeners, 15 strategies were used and the most adopted was providing a reason. In addition, it appears that the more serious the situation was, the number of those who decided not to perform the act increased.
