Discourse studies in Thailand

Abstract

This article discusses the status of discourse studies in Thailand, including research on the Tai-Kadai, Austroasiatic, Tibeto-Burman and Hmong-Mien language families and Thai textbooks. Most previous discourse studies on the Tai-Kadai language family are focused on written forms. Theme (topic, storyline, event) and cohesion seem to be the most studied topics. In more recent years, the trend of discourse analysis has moved towards conversation, pragmatics and cognitive analysis. Few research projects have focused on sociolinguistic aspects of discourse. There are not many works on the Austroasiatic, Tibeto-Burman and Hmong-Mien language families. The topics that are of main interest are cohesion and discourse markers. Two Thai textbooks on discourse analysis and pragmatics have been found.

Keywords

Southeast Asian languages status of discourse studies survey of discourse studies Thai discourse Tai-Kadai languages

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