Abstract:
To compare and contrast discourse connectors in spoken and written styles used in four types of discourses in Thai, namely narrative, hortatory, procedural and expository discourses. It is hypothesized in the study that (1) connectors occur more frequently in the written style than in the spoken one, (2) macro connectors characterize the written style, whereas micro connectors are a special characteristic of the spoken style, and (3) each discourse type displays differences in terms of frequency of occurrences and size of connectors. The findings of this study can be summarized as follows 1. Connectors in both styles show similarities of semantic categories and functions. 2. The written style has diversity of forms of both micro and macro connectors than the spoken style. 3. Connectors in expository discourse and narrative discourse which use the written style tend to be bigger than connectors in other types of discourses. 4.The written style displays frequency of occurrences of micro connectors in a similar manner to the spoken style but shows remarkable differences of frequency for macro connectors