Standard Thai classifiers have never been studied exclusively and comprehensively. That is, they have been included in grammars of the entire language and are usually discussed by giving a few examples. Specific papers usally deal with some particular aspect of classifiers exclusively. The criteria of classification by a given classifier are a puzzle in many cases. Often there are obvious semantic criteria of classification, and obvious syntactic criteria as well. The relation between semantic and syntactic criteria of classification is unclear. Equally unclear is the relation between headword and classifier, a relation which is the basis of the criteria of classification. In this study, a near-complete list of Thai classifiers is drawn from the Thai-English Student's Dictionary by M.R. Haas (1965). A semantic definition of classifiers is provided and various categories are described. The first category is Repeaters. Members of this category are found to be one-place predicates. A second category is Partial Repeaters and these are found to have a relationship of hyponymy with the headword. Measures are another important category, divided into Standard Measures (exact non-entities) and Temporary Measures (inexact units used as measures according to the intention of the speaker). The remaining category is found to contain non-compoundable classifiers of two types: those with very general referents (size, shape, etc.) and those classifiers in various stages of decreasing semantic equivalence with the sense of the same form as full substantive noun. The former type is labelled "General Units", the latter "Extended classifiers". Extended Classifiers are seen to be of two types: those with a single sense (or apparently "meaningless") and those with several senses, only some of which qualify as Extended Classifiers. The apparently meaningless classifiers /lem/ and /an/ do not occur as substantive nouns at all. The complete collection of nouns classified by each of these two classifiers (according to Haas 1965) is made and each class is examined for common semantic features. On the basis of comparative information from neighbouring and related languages, various possible criteria of extension are established for /lem/, and a basic sense equivalent to "sickle" is indicated by the data. The case with /an/ is rather different since its extensions are much wider and a larger number of nouns is classified. Based on prominent compounds classified by /an/, a basic sense of "stick" is hypothesized for /an/ and the possible paths of semantic extension are suggested. Finally, a "meaningful" Extended Classifier (/tua/, "body") is examined. The sense attributed to this form by native speakers when it functions as a full substantive noun becomes a factor in choosing the sense "body-shape" as the basic sense with classifier function. In concluding remarks, suggestions are made about the applications of the method and results of this paper to lexi cography and semantic reconstruction in Thai and languages of the area. The necessity of further phonological, histori cal and ethnographic information is stressed. / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / This thesis offers both an examination of the depiction of Thailand in Australian novels, short stories and poems written in the 1980s and after, and an analysis of modern Thai novels and short stories that reflect similar themes to those covered in the Australian literature. One Australian film is also examined as the film provides an important framework for the analysis of some of the short stories and novels under consideration. The thesis establishes a dialogue between Thai and Australian literatures and demonstrates that the comparison of Australian representations of Thailand with Thai representations challenges constructively certain dominant political and social ideologies that enhance conservatism and the status quo in Thailand. The author acknowledges that the discussion of the representations of Thailand in contemporary Australian novels and short stories needs to take into account the colonial legacy and the discourse of Orientalism that tends to posit the ‘East’ as the ‘West’’s ‘Other’. Textual analysis is thus informed by post-colonial and cross-cultural theories, starting from Edward Said’s powerful and controversial critique of Western representation of the East in Orientalism. The first part of the thesis examines Australian crime stories and shows how certain Orientalist images and perceptions persist and help reinforce the image of the East and its people as the antithesis of the West. From Chapters Three through Six, however, more literary works by Australian authors are examined. The important finding is that most of the Australian authors under consideration attempt, though not always successfully, to resist and challenge the Eurocentric stereotypes of Asia and Asians that dominated Australian literature in earlier periods. This difference between contemporary Australian authors and their predecessors seems to reflect modern Australia’s endeavor to distinguish itself from the rest of the Western world and to redefine its relationship with Asia. As literary representations cannot be separated from socio-political contexts, the thesis also includes discussion of the Thai social and political history and, where appropriate, shows how colonialism and neo-colonialism exert their impact on modern Thailand.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / This thesis offers both an examination of the depiction of Thailand in Australian novels, short stories and poems written in the 1980s and after, and an analysis of modern Thai novels and short stories that reflect similar themes to those covered in the Australian literature. One Australian film is also examined as the film provides an important framework for the analysis of some of the short stories and novels under consideration. The thesis establishes a dialogue between Thai and Australian literatures and demonstrates that the comparison of Australian representations of Thailand with Thai representations challenges constructively certain dominant political and social ideologies that enhance conservatism and the status quo in Thailand. The author acknowledges that the discussion of the representations of Thailand in contemporary Australian novels and short stories needs to take into account the colonial legacy and the discourse of Orientalism that tends to posit the ‘East’ as the ‘West’’s ‘Other’. Textual analysis is thus informed by post-colonial and cross-cultural theories, starting from Edward Said’s powerful and controversial critique of Western representation of the East in Orientalism. The first part of the thesis examines Australian crime stories and shows how certain Orientalist images and perceptions persist and help reinforce the image of the East and its people as the antithesis of the West. From Chapters Three through Six, however, more literary works by Australian authors are examined. The important finding is that most of the Australian authors under consideration attempt, though not always successfully, to resist and challenge the Eurocentric stereotypes of Asia and Asians that dominated Australian literature in earlier periods. This difference between contemporary Australian authors and their predecessors seems to reflect modern Australia’s endeavor to distinguish itself from the rest of the Western world and to redefine its relationship with Asia. As literary representations cannot be separated from socio-political contexts, the thesis also includes discussion of the Thai social and political history and, where appropriate, shows how colonialism and neo-colonialism exert their impact on modern Thailand.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Linguistics & Psychology, Department of Linguistics, 2006. / Bibliography: p. 742-762.

This thesis is a production report that describes the research process, pre-production and post-production stages of making a documentary about the Thai language school in the Thai temple in Dallas County. The film documents the teachers from Chulalongkorn University who volunteered to teach Thai-American students in the United States, and explores Thai-American students' attitudes toward the school and their heritage.

The primary purpose of this study was to find the content and form of movies which conform to the taste of the majority of Thai audiences and, at the same time, are universal enough to attract international audiences. Because film is an extension of other art forms, this required extensive research into the roots of Thai performing arts.

Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) is a kind of self-defense with its own forms of fighting which are different from the self-defense styles of other countries, whether it is in a form of wrestling, Karate, Taekon-do, etc.. Muay Thai is not only fighting for self-defense but also an art and science demonstrated by using various parts of body and movement resulting into forms of offense and defense. This documentary film was made for educational purpose and to spread the art of Thai Boxing to foreigners. VHS video tape was used as a medium to present this documentary. There are two segments in this Muay Thai Documentary. The first segment presents the history, circumstances, and general techniques of Muay Thai. The second segment shows the everyday life of ordinary boxers by using a Thai child named Noppadol as an representative for other fighters.

Numerous Thai older people fall each year. Although it has been shown that only 3.1% of fallers sustained fractures (Nevitt, Cumming, Kidd, & Black, 1989), injuries in older people are often more serious. For example, hospital charges for older adult fall injuries are about US $2,000 per person higher than for young fallers (Ellis & Trent, 2001). Moreover, falling can lead to social isolation, physical restraint, disability and institutionalisation (Donald & Bulpitt, 1999; Tideiksaar, 1994). Therefore falling in old age results in a considerable burden on, not only the individual concerned, but also the whole society. Internationally, a successful falls prevention program usually employs a multidimensional approaches (Alexander & Edelberg, 2002; Mosley, Galindo- Ciocon, Peak, & West, 1998). However, limited information about fall prevention has been reported in Thailand. A survey indicated that Thai elderly fall outside their homes which is different from the findings in Western countries (Jitapunkul et al., 1998). This suggests that adoption of fall prevention strategies from Western countries might not be successful in Thailand. Prior to this study, details of fall circumstances in terms of location, time, associated activity, hazards and type of falls in Thai older people were not available. Moreover, there was no information about fear of falling and activity restriction. These are important fall consequences that impact on quality of life and themselves are risk factors for falls. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of fear of falling, and to describe activity restriction in fallers and non-fallers, and the circumstances associated with falls in Thailand. No fear of falling measurement tools for Thai older people were available prior to the study. / Therefore the Survey of Activities and Fear of Falling in the elderly (SAFE) has been modified for use with Thai elderly people. The SAFE was translated to Thai by a certified translator, checked for cultural relevance and back-translated by a second translator; reliability testing then took place in Thailand. Face validity and cultural appropriateness were tested with a sample of convenience of 10 bilingual Thai elderly people living in Perth, Australia. After translation into Thai, 4 items showed less than 80% agreement and required adjustment to capture the equivalent meaning of the original version. The ‘take a show/wash yourself with a basin of water’ was added because the participants reported that taking a tub bath is not common or traditional in Thailand. However, the item ‘take a tub bath’ was retained until the examination in the main study confirmed that less than 1% of Thai older persons had taken a tub bath and inclusion of the item confounded actual fear of falling results. Interrater reliability was tested; nine 4th year occupational therapy students and 15 older persons living in the Chiang Mai community were recruited. The intraclass correlation coefficient of fear of falling of activities done, activities not done and activity restriction scores were .9845, .9236 and .9718 respectively (p < 0.001). Four raters and 50 older community dwellers participated in the intrarater and test-retest reliability tests. The results showed that intrarater reliability of all raters exceed 0.8 in every scores (p < .001). / The test-retest also demonstrated good reliability: .9960, .9376 and .9849 (p < 0.0001) for fear of falling of activities done, activities not done and activity restriction scores respectively. Five hundreds and forty six Thai older adults were then recruited by multistage random sampling. Fall history, fall circumstances, fear of falling and activity restriction data were obtained by structured interview and using the Thai version of the SAFE. The results demonstrated that prevalence of falls, fear of falling and activity restriction in Thai older people were 21%, 48% and 18%, respectively. Comparison between fallers and non-faller showed that fallers were more likely to be older (p < .001), female [χ2(1, N = 546) = 6.133; p = .013], not married [χ2 (4,N=546)=61.102;~= .001], living alone[χ2 (l,N=546)=4.313;p= ,041, rated their health as poorer [χ2 (4, N = 546) = 13.232; p < .001], had fear of falling [χ2 (1, N = 546) = 6.265; p = .015] and activity restriction [χ2 (1, N = 546) = 5.488; p = ,0271]. Older persons with a fear of falling tended to be older (p = .005), lower educated (p < .001), female [χ2 (1, N = 546) = 29.602; p = .001], rated their health as poorer [χ2 (4, N = 546) = 69.70; p < .001], had fallen [? (1, N = 546) = 6.265; p = ,0151 and had activity restriction [χ2 (l, N = 546) = 23.267; p < .001]. Older adults who curtailed their activities tended to be married [χ2 (1, N = 546) = 6.188; p = ,0131, rated their health as poorer [χ24, N = 546) = 14.302; p = ,0061, have a fall history [χ2 (1, N = 546) = 5.488; p = ,0271 and have a fear of falling [χ2(1, N = 546) = 23.267; p < .001]. / Using Chi-square test, the results showed that there were significant associations between falls and fear of falling χ2(l,N=546)=6.265;p=.015], falls and activity restriction [χ2 (l,N= 546) = 5.488; p = ,0271] and fear of falling and activity restriction [χ2 (1, N = 546) = 23.267; p < .001]. Fall circumstances of 114 falls demonstrated that most falls took place outdoors (65%), were associated with work (40%), involved environmental hazards (76%), occurred during the daytime (90%). Moreover most falls were falls on the same level from slipping, tripping or stumbling (61%). Logistic regression analysis indicated that risk factors for fear of falling in Thai older people were age (odds ratio = 1.025), unmarried-female (odds ratio = 5.979), married female (odds ratio = 1.903), poor self perceived health (odds ratio = 3.383) and more than 2 falls experience (odds ratio = 7.202). The protective factors were unmarried marital status for men (odds ratio = 0.344) and level of education (odds ratio = 0.933 2 or less falls and = 0.5625 if more than 2 falls in 12 months). The logistic model also provided a logistic equation for individual prediction of probability of fear of falling. To calculate the probability of having fear of falling, 6 parameters are required: age, gender, marital status, level of education, self-perceived health and number of falls in the past 12 months. The equation predicts with 70% accuracy and can be used for screening fear of falling in Thai elderly people. In conclusion, this study has modified a measurement tool (the SAFE Thai version) and developed a screening tool (logistic equation) for fear of falling. Both of them appear to be appropriate to further examine FOF in Thai elderly. The survey results showed a considerably number of Thai elderly people have fall experiences, fear of falling and activity restriction. / The predisposing factors for each problem have been identified. The association between 3 problems implicated that fear of falling and activity restriction interventions are necessary for fall prevention. The fall circumstances data show that conditions of falls in Thai elderly people were similar and dissimilar to those in Western countries. The preventive efforts to reduce falls should consider these distinctive fall circumstances.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the appropriateness of B2B technology transfer in developing countries, particularly in Thailand. This study seeks an understanding of how Thai culture affects the appropriateness of B2B technology adoption for inter-firm communication in Thailand. A research model was developed for investigating this issue via a strategic fit lens. The proposed model extended the Task-technology fit (TTF) model by Goodhue and Thompson (1995) by integrating interorganisational theories and theories of national culture. This research takes the view that, to achieve a high utilisation of B2B technology adoption, firms in developing countries need to adopt effective IT strategies that align with their local environment. Hence, this research proposes that cultural fit is a major influence on the perception of appropriateness of B2B technology adoption in Thailand. The study was conducted using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The first study, the qualitative study, was conducted as a preliminary study by interviewing officials in the Thai government and companies in the tourism industry. The objectives were to explore and identify the cultural dimensions that impact on the appropriateness of B2B technology adoption in Thailand. The resulting dimensionalities of cultural fit are: personal relationships; long-term relationships; interorganisational trust; ability to communicate in the English language and materialism. The second study was conducted via a quantitative approach and scales were developed to validate the proposed research model. Data were collected through a survey questionnaire, and analysed by using Structural Equation Modeling with Partial Least Squares (PLS) method. This study found that cultural fit does influence the appropriateness of B2B technology adoption in Thailand. A better perceived fit between Thai culture and B2B technology results in higher technology utilisation. In addition, the results of moderating effect analysis found that, although task-technology fit had no direct impact on utilisation, task-technology fit did have indirect impact on utilisation by moderating the impact of culture. Nevertheless, the results indicated that task-technology fit still had a greater impact on firms' perceived performance than utilisation.

Sexually transmitted diseases are a major problem among adolescents in Thailand, and seeing that unprotected sex is a growing trend, awareness must be increased. The aim of this study was to examine Thai students’ knowledge of and attitudes to STDs as well as if there are any differences in gender regarding these questions. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at a private university in Bangkok, Thailand. The Health Belief Model was provided as theoretical framework. A questionnaire was answered voluntarily by 150 students, both male and female. The results showed that the students had low level of knowledge on STDs and their attitudes showed that they have many misconceptions regarding these issues. The study also showed that Thai students want to learn more about STDs and wish to receive this information from school. No major difference in gender was found. This study shows that additional education on STDs is needed among Thai adolescents. Further research in this area is acquired to get a wider perspective of Thai students’ knowledge on STDs, to help prevent future spreading of STDs. / Sexuellt överförbara sjukdomar är ett stort problem hos ungdomar i Thailand och eftersom oskyddat sex är en växande trend bör detta uppmärksammas. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka thailändska studenters kunskap om och attityder till sexuellt överförbara sjukdomar. Studien önskade även undersöka huruvida det fanns någon skillnad mellan könen. En deskriptiv tvärsnittsstudie gjordes på ett privat universitet i Bangkok, Thailand. Health Belief Model användes som teoretiskt ramverk. Ett frågeformulär besvarades frivilligt av 150 manliga och kvinnliga studenter. Resultatet visade att studenterna hade bristande kunskaper om sexuellt överförbara sjukdomar. Deras attityder visade att studenterna hade många felaktiga uppfattningar i frågan. Studien visade även att de thailändska studenterna vill lära sig mer om sexuellt överförbara sjukdomar och önskar att få denna information ifrån skolan.  Studien visade inga stora skillnader mellan könen. Denna studie visar att ytterligare kunskaper om sexuellt överförbara sjukdomar hos thailändska ungdomar behövs. Ytterligare forskning inom området är önskvärt. Detta för att få ett bredare perspektiv om thailändska studenters kunskaper om sexuellt överförbara sjukdomar, för att bidra till att förebygga ytterligare smittspridning.