Kinterm Usage and Hierarchy in Thai Children's Peer Groups

Abstract

This article examines Northern Thai children's language socialization into the elder sibling/younger sibling relationship, including the communicative practices for inhabiting it, through routinized person‐referring practices in their peer groups. Notwithstanding a strong cultural emphasis on hierarchy in this community, children's unmarked practices for self and other reference reflect and create an egalitarian and intimate social space. When children invoke the hierarchical elder/junior relationship through their use of person reference—especially kinterms—it is done as a means of seeking compliance within these play groups. It is argued children's practices of kinterm usage socialize them into the affective and social dimensions of their relationships with siblings and friends.

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