SOME SEMANTIC FEATURES OF KINSHIP TERMS IN THAI LANGUAGE

Abstract

Kinship terms are a group of words used to identify and address members in the same family or the same clan. The kinship terms in Thai are very diverse and complicated, each of them has its own semantic features, conveying different implications that are related to the cultural, social, and lifestyle characteristics of Thai people. This paper is conducted on the semantic features of kinship terms in Thai language through the in-depth analysis of specific meaning components, namely, meaning components indicating generations, meaning components indicating sexes, meaning components indicating kinship lines, and meaning components indicating age or rank and role of people in the same generation.