The Situational Factors That Affect the Language Used in Offering Assistance Among Thai, Japanese and Thai Japanese Language users

Abstract

This research article is a study of the language used in offering assistance on the part of Thai, Japanese and Thai Japanese language users. The objective was to study the semantic units used in offering assistance and to study the relationships among the situational factors and types of semantic units. Data were collected through a discourse completion test from a sample of Thai, Japanese and Thai Japanese language users, with a total of 180 people. Data were analyzed by counting frequencies and using percentage statistics. The study found the following. One, the semantic units used in offering assistance can be divided into three groups: introductory utterances, offer-assistance utterances, and supplementary utterances. Two, the type of situation affected the selection of the type of semantic units, and three,   situational factors affected Thais in choosing the type of semantic units---in situations that provide assistance in personal matters, Thais asked the interlocutor for information in the introduction, offered assistance by asking about the interlocutor’s needs, and often used supplementary semantic units. In the situations that provide assistance in work, Thais used identity markers in the introduction, offered assistance by asking non-specific questions and not using supplementary semantic units. Four, situational factors affected the Japanese in choosing the type of semantic units in introductory utterances and supplementary utterances, but did not affect offer-assistance utterances---in situations that provide assistance in personal matters, the Japanese asked the interlocutor for information in the introduction while they mentioned the interlocutor's condition in situations that provide assistance in work and often used supplementary semantic units, and offered assistance in the form of questions in every situation. Five, situational factors affected the Thai Japanese language users in choosing the type of semantic units in introductory utterances and supplementary utterances, but did not affect offer-assistance utterances---in the situations that provide assistance in personal matters, Thai Japanese language users asked the interlocutor for information in the introduction while they used identity markers in the situation that provide assistance in work, and offered assistance in the form of questions in every situation.