Not Just a Nickname: Labels for Entertainers and the Media’s Power to Criticize the Behavior and Construct Representations of Entertainers

Abstract

This study aims to study the linguistic devices used for the construction of nicknames of Thai entertainers and to study the relationship between the linguistic devices in the role of assigning nicknames to Thai entertainers during 2005-2015.

The study reveals that there were several linguistic devices used for the construction of 112 labels during this period, namely; metonymy, assonance, puns, adaptation of words, allusions, verbal irony, metaphors, idioms, and spoonerisms. These linguistic devices relate to two roles in the assignment of nicknames to Thai entertainers. The first role is to criticize the behavior and performance of Thai entertainers. The second role is to construct, reinforce and reproduce the image of entertainers. The process – typically the selection of one event from the past year used as material for label construction – creates a nicknames of entertainers as a reminder of the event during the last year, which will continue to be used in the following year. Through social media, nicknames of entertainers are easily disseminated and preserved for repeated future searching.