Abstract:
This research objectives were to study the history of patriotic songs of the four armies and their communicative meaning, the motivations, emotional meaning and speech act analysis. Eight patriotic songs of the four armies, from total 223, were selected to study in this research. The results showed as : the first patriotic song were found in the era of King Rama V (2452 B.C.) and were prosperous in the era of King Rama VI (2456 B.C.). After the democratization in (2475 B.C.), the armies composed more patriotic songs and it was in the era of Marshall Pibhulsongkram that the patriotic songs reached their peak as at that time, during the World War II, the government wanted to encourage soldiers patriotic spirit. Nevertheless, the patriotic songs were not that popular in Marshall Sarit Tanaruch era, it was until the democratic seeking movement during 14 October 2516-2519 (B.C.) that the patriotic songs became popular again. The research found that the patriotic songs communicated with figure of speech 97.53% and non figure of speech 2.47%, by using synecdoche, hyperbole and metonymy, respectively. The words mostly used in the patriotic songs lyrics were to make soldiers proud of being military. The words that inspire vigorous spirit, making soldiers voluntarily sacrifice themselves, and the words that psychologically enthused plain folks. The methods in emphasizing the patriotic feeling was the repetitive use of rhymed vowels and consonants that go along with the song. The research also found that every patriotic song used rhythm to arouse the emotion. Quick March and heavy rhythm were used to help communicating both verbal and nonverbal meaning. For the speech act analysis and motivation, the composer applied the representative, declarations and expressives, respectively. The composers objectives were to motivate devotion, courage and sense of responsibility. The three major motivation factors were the safety need, esteem need, and devotion