태국어의 완곡 표현에 대한 연구

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to classify the euphemistic expressions of the Thai language and analyze and describe the meanings of them. In many cases, the language by itself is not enough for communication through the language. It is because, in communication, not only verbal factors but also nonverbal contexts such as actual speaking circumstances, social and cultural backgrounds are applied. It can be said that one of the most difficult parts for foreigners to understand the Thai language is euphemistic expressions. This research examined the euphemistic expressions of the Thai language after dividing them into the euphemism in the vocabulary category and the euphemism in the sentence category. This research categorized the euphemistic expressions in the vocabulary into five types: the euphemisms related to obscenity or sex, the euphemisms related to death, the euphemisms related to physiological conditions, the euphemisms related to human body, and the euphemisms related to occupations, and analyzed their respective meanings. The syntactic euphemisms were described after dividing them into the euphemism represented through politeness and the euphemism represented through indirect narration. The euphemistic expressions represent not only the linguistic characteristics of a language but also social and cultural characteristics of the users of the language. This research is expected to be helpful to foreigners learning the Thai language in understanding the characteristics of the Thai language, and based on this, contribute to enhancing the efficiency in communication with Thai people.