Natthaporn Panpothong
Siriporn Phakdeephasook
Department of Thai, Thaivithat Research Unit, Chulalongkorn University
According to Markus and Kitayama’s (1991) well-known theory, self-construal or cognitive representations of the self that people hold can be divided into two primary types – independent and interdependent self-construal. As noted in psychological research, the way we conceptualize and experience ourselves has an influence upon the way we think and interact with others. Thus, the notion of self-construal appears to be significant as an underlying logic to account for linguistic behaviors in different cultures.
In Markus and Kitayama’s famous model, Thai culture is presented as an example of cultures in which people are likely to have some version of an interdependent self (Markus and Kitayame 1991:228). Nevertheless, not all scholars working on Thai culture agree on this proposal. Some argue that Thai people have a strong sense of independence and individualistic behaviors can be found in many aspects of daily life (Embree 1950, Komin 1991, Wichitwathakarn 2008).
To date, scholars still hold different views on the prominent self-construal of Thai people. Most of the previous studies were conducted from the perspectives of social psychology and anthropology using data from interviews, questionnaires and psychological experiments. Little has been done from a linguistic viewpoint. The present study aims at examining linguistic data from the Thai language in response to the question of whether Thai culture emphasizes independent or interdependent perspectives of the self. The data examined in this study include: 1. Thai cultural key terms, sayings and proverbs; 2. Thai pronouns and final particles; and 3. interactional discourse.
(Presented in the 2020 Chulalongkorn Asian Heritage Forum : Thai-Tai Language and Culture, 20 July 2020, The St.Regis Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Department of Thai, Department of Linguistics, Southeast Asian Linguistics Research Unit, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University)