Linguistic Devices Reflecting Violence in Border–Provinces of Southern Thailand on the Front Page of Local and National Newspapers

Abstract

The objective of the study is to analyze linguistic devices reflecting the violence in the south border provinces; namely Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla on 1,344 front pages of three local newspapers; namely Chaotai, Focus Phaktai and Samila Times and of two major newspapers, the Thairath and Matichon, between 2004 and 2005, and 2011 and 2012. The result shows that there are two important linguistic devices: 1) lexical choices, such as the use of verbs describing violence, the use of quantitative words and the use of words naming someone who has committed violent acts, and 2) metaphors, namely “A VIOLENT PROBLEM IS HEAT”, “A VICTIM IS A FALLING LEAF”, and “A TERRORIST IS A FOX”. Comparing linguistic devices between the two types of newspapers, shows that major newspapers choose to use more violent words than local newspapers do. They also create more negative images of the south of Thailand.