ABSTRACT Thesis Title ‘An Analysis of Semantic Interference Stemming from Words and Word Meanings in Feature Articles in Business Week Magazine Student’s Name Miss Kannika Chantasriwiroj Degree Sought Master of Arts Major Communicative English, Faculty of Humanities Academic Year 2006 Advisory committee 1. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Uthai Piromruen Chairperson 2. Asst. Prof. Dr. Boonchan Thongprayoon 3. Mr. Glen Vivian Chatelier The main purpose of this study is to identify the patterns of words which may cause so-called “semantic interference.” These are words which have multiple meanings and which accordingly confuse or mislead readers. Data were gathered from seventy-seven feature articles written by six writers selected from Business Week magazine. All of these articles were published in the period 2004-2005. Results of the qualitative study based on contextual analysis show that there are four groups of words which may cause semantic interference. The groups of words found are mostly technical terms, words derived from the Gv)word-formation process, jargon as loaded-lexicon words, and a few words from the group of words using figurative language. Readers who are not native speakers of English and who are less familiar with the business content can apply this contextual analysis, especially since it is based on the corpus of, words collected as instances of “semantic interference.” As such, this analysis should prove helpful to readers, especially those who are not native speakers of English, in better understanding this type of business article. ™)uniiade Sotovinniinus mstiaaeviqnuarguassalumsdonmunuw vosmaiton shuaza nu mnovostiluunaT qafelu faves Derive tad fogitiow anaen nasi dune salsa Fousqan fouencasunmiatia min mandanquifiomsdonns ‘Unsfimn 2549 Ausnssumsilsnwrineins 1, s0amMeasraIsd as. Quis Aswiiy usemunssums 2. Asaumerasioisd as. yysia newlszys 3. wietnay Fou munity galsenamudnuosmsionsatifemimngluvuvesmsunsnuasséry nou nioMfduawarmnnduoromltgenudi le lysate laAald Jumsdiwunnnumagstie Soyaihhuriagetnnunanad ua 77 unarwsfidonasseintindownnnuitafaniluiiavms Gertie Ind sein ALFt, 2004-2005 nams3suninnisiinseriteniieqnunn wih fingudafiowrhliia msunsauaaA are dau 4 nu Semmes Anfiamesatsins H ffinvinnsewaumsad eine Aitdina ues uazornnduda nna wnel thadntion Foust divean nie hitugmdruqafaiusno owlstims Ansrevidlomornudun uae Walssaradfio varie Wiamsunsnusadiy amumnh Asqusawl4 selumsiianud lems muna larva (vi)