English Code-Mixing in Thai Reality Television Show: The Face Thailand Season Four (All-stars)

Abstract

English is often code-mixed in everyday Thai communication and the phenomenon seems far more common these days than in the past. The study illustrates the frequencies of English code-mixing in a reality television show and suggests possible motivating factors of such practice. For authenticity, we observed conversations in the reality TV programme “The Face Thailand Season 4 All-Stars”, broadcast in 13 episodes in 2018. The dialogues were collected and analyzed for frequency and parts of speech and the types of word formation were identified. The study found the most mixing codes in word and phrase levels. Of all 13 episodes, 5,011 code-mixing occurrences were recorded, of which 3,901 (77.85%) were words, and 1,110 (22.15%) were phrases, and the majority were nouns (68.06%). Code-mixing types mainly included hybridization (76.38%) whereas other types were much less common, such as truncation, reduplication, conversion, and word order. The study concluded that the Thais code-mixed English to serve effective communication, but the usage of the foreign code was adapted to suit the Thai syntax, particularly observed in hybridization, truncation, semantic shift, and conversion. It is, however, noted that the practice of code- mixing may be more prevalent to those with access to media and exposure to other cultures. The study further explored the speaker’s motivation in code-mixing and suggested the need for an updated compilation of English borrowings in the Thai dictionary of loanwords.