A Sociolinguistic Analysis on Speech Functions of Code Switching in Thai Modelling-Themed Reality Show: A Case Study of “The Face Men Thailand Season 2

Abstract

This research is a descriptively case study which aims at analysing the speech functions in code switching produced by mentors as well as their male mentees in the second season of Thai male modelling-themed reality show which was aired in 2018. In analysing those collected data, the researcher applied Appel and Muysken’s (1987) conceptual framework on six speech functions of code switching, which are: 1) the directive function; 2) the expressive function; 3) the referential function; 4) the metalinguistic function; 5) the poetic function; and 6) the phatic function, and the context of situation where the related utterances occurred in such the reality show was mentioned in the section of data interpretation of each individual datum. The data source was gained from ten episodes videos uploaded on www.watchlakorn.in/TheFaceMenThailandSeason2- cm-3352. The data is in the form of utterances which are related to Thai-English code switching. The qualitative approach was employed by the researcher in this research because of the fact that the types of code switching functions and the reasons the television reality show’s participants (mentors and male contestants) performed such speech functions were going to be elucidated. The findings of this research shows that there are five speech functions of code switching occurred in the reality show, which are: 1) referential function found in data (1), (10), (11), (19), (20), (23), (27), (28), (29), (30), (31), (34), (36), 38) and (40); 2) metalinguistic function appearing in data (4), (6), (7), (14), (21), (22), (24), (25), (26), (31), (32), (37) and (39); 3) expressive function emerging in data (2), (3), (5), (7), (8), (9), (12), (13), (16), (18), (23) and (35); 4) directive function observed in data (17); and 5) poetic function took its place in datum (10) and (15). For the phatic speech function, it was found to be absent in the show because nobody of the participants uttered an utterance of this speech function. The mostly-occurred speech functions, in terms their frequencies, performed by participants were: 1) the referential speech function with an estimated 34. 88 per cent; 2) the metalinguistic function with an estimated 30.23 per cent; 3) the expressive function with an estimated 21.91 per cent; 4) the poetic function with an estimated 4.65 per cent; 5) the directive function with an estimated 2.33 per cent; and 6) the phatic function with an estimated 0.00 per cent, respectively.