A Study on Linguistic Strategies for Persuading People in Eastern Lanna Area to Change Behavior on Alcohol Drinking during Thai Festivals

Abstract

     The objectives of this research are: (1) to investigate the patterns and discursive structure that persuade individuals to change their alcohol consumption habit during Thai festivals in the Eastern Lanna area; and (2) to investigate the linguistic strategies used to persuade people to change such behaviors. This research is a qualitative research in the type of linguistic text analysis. The results revealed that analyzing the patterns and structures of messages that communicate persuasive intent, there are several issues of intent under the same and different message types, which Chiang Rai, Phayao, and Nan provinces have different types of messages and communication intent that have distinctive characteristics that appeared in that province. While the message type in Phrae province appeared to be comparable to the message type in the other three provinces. There is no an outstanding strategy. Persuasive communication includes four strategies as follows: (1) Chiang Rai: 1) Lexical Strategies, 2) System of Address Strategies, 3) Discourse-Pragmatic Strategies; (2) Phrae: Lexical Strategies; (3) Phayao: 1) Lexical strategies, 2) Modification Strategies, 3) Discourse-Pragmatic Strategies; (4) Nan: 1) Lexical Strategies, 2) Modification Strategies, 3) Discourse-Pragmatic Strategies, 4) Rhetorical Strategies. Overall, Phrae Province uses few linguistic strategies of the overall provinces.