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The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume II - 2010 Sentence Classifiers and Verb Phrase Classifiers 60 Sentence Classifiers and Verb Phrase Classifiers 1 Udom Warotamasikkhadit Fellow of the Royal Institute, Academy of Arts and Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University Abstract It is generally known that a classifier is designated by a noun dominating it. Some scholars consider it a semantic feature attached to a noun. Thai language scholars hardly pay attention to sentence classifiers and verb phrase classifiers in Thai. They are not mentioned in many Thai grammar books, including a booklet on classifiers issued by the Royal Institute of Thailand. There are several classifiers of time such as khráŋ, h n, khraa, laa, thii, r p and many others are employed as a sentence classifier for different actions of a noun or a verb phrase classifier of an abstract noun. Those who study Thai must learn how to use each word independently and separately in order to use it correctly. Key words: classifier, semantic features Introduction Thai is one of the languages of the world that has classifiers. Classifiers are normally analyzed as features of a noun, for example m ú ŋ ‘mosquito net’ [+cl] [+l ŋ ]. The structure of a noun phrase showing a classifier is as follows: a noun + a numeral + a classifier or a noun + [+cl] + n ŋ ‘one’ or diaw ‘one only’. Udom Warotamasikkhadit (1995, 2004) observes that classifiers do not only co-occur with noun but also co-occur with sentences and verb phrases. The first edition of a pamphlet on classifiers (1995) and the revised edition of a pamphlet on classifiers (2008) published by the Royal Institute of Thailand did not include sentence classifiers or verb phrase classifiers. This shows that Thai scholars show no interest in sentence classifiers and verb phrase classifiers. 1 The early version of this paper was presented at the 42 nd International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics at Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand, November 2-4, 2009.