Mitigating Linguistic Devices Utilized via Public Figures Interview: A Case Study of Thai Celebrities and Politicians
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Abstract
The objective of this research was to study the mitigating linguistic devices employed by public figures in the entertainment industry and political group when they were interviewed. Interviewed videos which were broadcasted on YouTube website since November, 1, 2022 to April, 30, 2023 were used as data. They included1) entertainment news program, entitled ‘Nine Entertain Official’, 2) ‘The Secret Sauce’, and 3) ‘Euai talk’. The result revealed that there were six linguistic devices used by celebrities: 1. mitigating quantity, 2. expressing opinion, 3. predicting, 4. ambiguity, 5. substituting another word upon the mitigating one, and 6. humor. When Thai politicians were interviewed, there were also six devices being applied: 1.expressing opinion, 2. predicting, 3. mitigating quantity, 4. ambiguity, 5. substituting another word upon the mitigating one, and 6. conditional sentence. In terms of sociocultural factors related to utilizing the linguistic devices, the findings revealed that the devices and contents toward celebrities and politicians reflected mutualism, affiliative society, gratitude, awareness of contexts and social interactions, fun, utilizing Thai idioms, morality, and Buddhist doctrines.
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