Constructions with hâj in Thai from the Perspective of German

Abstract

This research is a Thai-German contrastive analysis focusing on answering two important research questions: 1) What forms, meanings, and functions of hâj constructions can be found and how can they be categorized? 2) What German forms and structures appear as equivalents of the hâj constructions in Thai and how can the relationship between them be explained? The data used for the analysis is a bidirectional parallel corpus consisting of short stories and non-literary articles written in Thai and German as well as their translations into the other language. The results of the analysis show that there are 14 forms of hâj constructions which can be categorized into 10 groups of meaning or semantic functions: verb function verb without meaning; transfer; benefactive or malefactive; causative; permissive; resultative; purposive; modal or manner; concessive; and temporal. There are 7 forms of the most important German equivalents of Thai hâj constructions: 1) the verb lassen; 2) the modal verb sollen; 3) the dative case; 4) the preposition zu; 5) the preposition für; 6) the conjunction um … zu; and 7) the infinitive particle zu. It is obvious that the grammaticalization process of hâj constructions in Thai and their German equivalents show some similarities in terms of meaning and structure.