Abstract
This study aims to investigate the Thai PM Gen Prayuth Chan-o-cha’s use of stance expressions to construe trust, comprising attitudinal stance, epistemic stance and modality, in his weekly addresses broadcast on national television from March to December, 2017. The linguistic investigation incorporating Critical Discourse Analysis and trust frameworks shows that the three main aspects of trust are pursued. Integrity is however predominantly constructed through the use of a modal verb kʰᴐ̌ː ‘would like’ and an attitudinal verb jà:k ‘want’. Interestingly, a relatively small number of stance markers are found to project competency and benevolence. The results have led to the conclusion that the PM’s trust-building strategies mainly involve the construal of integrity by asserting his moral values linked with national reform, reconciliation, and advancement. These characteristics of linguistic hegemony via the construction of trust-building are expected to raise more sociopolitical awareness in the Thai political context.
Highlights
To retain power and stability, politicians have sought ways to build trust through taking action to establish a sustainable approach to national development
This section focuses on the analysis of the stance markers used by the Thai PM in his weekly addresses to enact his identity as a trustworthy politician
The detailed analysis underlying the use of stance markers is given
Summary
To retain power and stability, politicians have sought ways to build trust through taking action to establish a sustainable approach to national development. Politicians’ trustworthiness, is mainly manifested by discourse, a form of social practice in which societal power relations are embedded, produced and reproduced through the use of language. The person’s competency is strongly linked with our impression that the person is able to deal with difficulties and take control of unexpected situations. It is believed that we tend to mentally assess the person’s integrity based on our sense that they are committed to moral beliefs and principles in addition to acting upon a promise. The trustworthy person tends to be one who has good intentions, as well as empathy towards others
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