“Why Do Not You Get Married?”: World View of Woman and Marriage in Thai Society.

Abstract

Country song could be used as a linguistic instrument to convey social concept reflecting Thai society world view. This study was investigated “Will You Marry Me? (ชวนน้องแต่งงาน)”, a long lasting popular country song, to project the world view in the lyric. The result showed that the world view of Thai woman and marriage, especially the world view of relation between man and woman. As appeared in the lyric, the male term was elder (พี่) while the female term was younger (น้อง). For the flirtation, the words also implied the male dominance. Furthermore, the sarcasm was used against the woman for accomplishment of flirtation provided by male. It reflected social framework forcing a woman to have a partner in an appropriate time according to social value. On the other hand, it was sinful. She might be degraded as an expired stuff. Moreover, it reflected the world view representing the woman as a charming object and the woman must have behavior according to the social framework, even her own marriage.