A Comparative Study Of The Honorific Between Thai And Chinese

Honorific are a way of showing respect in communication, which is a sign of the development of social civilization. Chinese and Thai language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family, but also there are many differences when it comes to the Honorific between them. The focus of this research is to compare the differences in Honorific between Chinese and Thai language.This research mainly employs the usage of comparative and heuristic methods.This research concludes that the difference between Chinese and Thai Honorific which mostly appears in the morphemes, expressions and usages. Most of Honorific in Chinese language always be composed of bound morpheme while Thai language always be composed of independent morpheme. Interjection and auxiliary verbs in Thai language can also be respectable words, whereas they are not exists in Chinese language. Depending on the usage, Thai language can be divided into 3 levels of words:royalty, politeness, and ordinary. Thai and Chinese honorific usage depends on time and place. For expressions, Chinese’s honorific are synonym, which appears in horizontal explanation hence, Thai’s honorifics focus on the different usage of language level which appears in vertical explanation.