ศาลาชุมนุม

[Tomke__987]

I've have read the excellent explanation about classifiers on thai-language.com. That helped me a bunch.
http://www.thai-language.com/ref/classifiers

However, I wonder how the position of an adjective (in a classifier sentence) changes the meaning.
If a numeral(1,2,3,4) is used, I noticed that the adjective is before the classifier, if no numeral is used (talking about 1 item, but not specifying it to 1) I noticed that the adjective changes position: after the classifier.
* สนิทซื้อรถสีเขียวหนึ่งคัน (adjective สีเขียว BEFORE the classifier คัน) Sanit bought ONE green car.
* สนิทซื้อรถคันสีเขียว (adjective สีเขียว AFTER the classifier คัน) Sanit bouth A green car.

The second sentence I made myself (สนิทซื้อรถคันสีเขียว). I tried to translate it as well. Does the position of the adjective change the sentence is this way (one -> a)?
Or is this incorrect usuage of thai language?

Any comments would be helpful. My grammar book 'A reference grammar of Thai' doesn't mention the change in translation if an adjective changes position. Nor does the very helpful article on thai-language.com mention anything about it. Just trying to get a step further

[DonSena]

I've have read the excellent explanation about classifiers on thai-language.com. That helped me a bunch.
http://www.thai-language.com/ref/classifiers

However, I wonder how the position of an adjective (in a classifier sentence) changes the meaning.
If a numeral(1,2,3,4) is used, I noticed that the adjective is before the classifier, if no numeral is used (talking about 1 item, but not specifying it to 1) I noticed that the adjective changes position: after the classifier.
* สนิทซื้อรถสีเขียวหนึ่งคัน (adjective สีเขียว BEFORE the classifier คัน) Sanit bought ONE green car.
* สนิทซื้อรถคันสีเขียว (adjective สีเขียว AFTER the classifier คัน) Sanit bouth A green car.

The second sentence I made myself (สนิทซื้อรถคันสีเขียว). I tried to translate it as well. Does the position of the adjective change the sentence is this way (one -> a)?
Or is this incorrect usage of Thai language?

Any comments would be helpful. My grammar book 'A reference grammar of Thai' doesn't mention the change in translation if an adjective changes position. Nor does the very helpful article on thai-language.com mention anything about it. Just trying to get a step further

There is a shift of emphasis between the two examples.

In สนิทซื้อรถสีเขียวหนึ่งคัน , he bought *one* car, a car that happened to be green

In สนิทซื้อรถคันสีเขียว , he went and bought himself a car, a *green one* [indeed].

[Tgeezer]

Incorrect use of language is an interesting question, I have also puzzled over these sorts of things but came to the conclusion that often it doesn't matter.
However you must come to your own conclusion.
ลักษณนาม is a strange word because it doesn't show the difference between things but groups together quite different things.
So รถคันหนึ่ง so in this case since รถ and คัน are used together คัน means รถ.
Having established that, คัน can be used in place of รถ, and tends to be used for questions as well.
Q . เขาได้ซื้อรถคันไหน or if the topic is buying cars: ซื้อคันไหน
A. คันสีเขียว
I feel that even if the question had been เขาได้ซื้อรถไหน the answer would have been either รถสีเขียว or คันสีเขียว showing that the language is in a state of change and ลักษณนาม are difficult to reconcile with English.
I think that the correct way is to modify the noun then apply the ลักษณนาม รถสีเขียวคันหนึ่ง.
In สนิดซื้อรถคัน(หนึ่ง)สีเขียว the coulour seems like an afterthought.

Now I notice that this is different from what Don wrote, in the light of that; perhaps since there is no doubt that the car is green, whether it was bought because it was green or it happened to be green, does it matter? Perhaps you would need to show intention in other ways: จงใจซื้อ / เลือกคันสีเขียว for instance.

This is only what I feel, I don't claim that it's correct.

[Pirin]

I've have read the excellent explanation about classifiers on thai-language.com. That helped me a bunch.
http://www.thai-language.com/ref/classifiers

However, I wonder how the position of an adjective (in a classifier sentence) changes the meaning.
If a numeral(1,2,3,4) is used, I noticed that the adjective is before the classifier, if no numeral is used (talking about 1 item, but not specifying it to 1) I noticed that the adjective changes position: after the classifier.
* สนิทซื้อรถสีเขียวหนึ่งคัน (adjective สีเขียว BEFORE the classifier คัน) Sanit bought ONE green car.
* สนิทซื้อรถคันสีเขียว (adjective สีเขียว AFTER the classifier คัน) Sanit bouth A green car.

The second sentence I made myself (สนิทซื้อรถคันสีเขียว). I tried to translate it as well. Does the position of the adjective change the sentence is this way (one -> a)?
Or is this incorrect usuage of thai language?

Any comments would be helpful. My grammar book 'A reference grammar of Thai' doesn't mention the change in translation if an adjective changes position. Nor does the very helpful article on thai-language.com mention anything about it. Just trying to get a step further

1.
สนิทซื้อรถสีเขียวหนึ่งคัน
=>
Sanit bought a green car.

2.
สนิทซื้อรถคันสีเขียว
=>
Sanit bought a car which is green.
Sanit bought the car which is green.
Sanit bought the green car.

[Tgeezer]

1.
สนิทซื้อรถสีเขียวหนึ่งคัน
=>
Sanit bought a green car.

2.
สนิทซื้อรถคันสีเขียว
=>
Sanit bought a car which is green.
Sanit bought the car which is green.
Sanit bought the green car.

Just to help Tomke_987 to 'get a step further on;
You shouldn't have made up the second sentence because assumes a context, as shown by the second and third translations in Pirin's reply.
A simple illustration: 'The car' which begs the question: Which car? Or What car? So is an answer rather than a statement.

Originally I suspect that Thai needed to restate the object whenever a modification was made to the it.
ie. สนิดซื้อรถ Sanit bought car.
It's singular or plural there is no way of knowing in Thai, but there was no need to know, people usually know what they are talking about.
If he buys two cars: สนิดซื้อรถ สองรถ*
But If the object is modified in any way: รถสามล้อ and plural then the ลักษณนาม is sensible: สนิดซื้อรถสามล้อ 2 คัน
The ลักษณนาม can be seen as a kind of สรรพนาม.
สนิดซื้อรถสีเขียว is enough, but if Sanit bought more than one; สนิดซื้อกางเกงขาสั้น 2 ตัว you can see how ลักษณนาม makes some sense.
This is a characteristic of Thai which is thought desirable to preserve, or has been thought worth preserving. The danger is that it will "go down the plug hole" in the same way as many other features of the language; สนิดซื้อสองกางเกงขาสั้น* !

* Not good Thai.

[Tomke__987]

Interesting comments. Thank you
I understand the differences between the two sentences better.

In retroperspective, the missing context makes the second sentence more difficult to translate.

The grammar in Thai is sometimes more complex then expected...