ศาลาชุมนุม

[Tgeezer]

The RID does define อยู่ ก. ใช้ประกอบหลังกริยา แสดงว่ากําลังเป็นอยู่ในขณะนั้น เช่น นอนอยู่ ตั้งอยู่.
The กำลังเป็นหยุดชั่วคราวในขณะนั้น

I am using an online version. Is it a summarized version of the hard copy?

No I don't think so, here it is.
อยู่ [หฺยู่] ก. พัก, อาศัย, เช่น เขาอยู่บ้านหลังนี้; ยังมีชีวิต เช่น เขายังอยู่;
คงที่ เช่น เงินที่ให้มายังอยู่ครบ, ไม่ไปจากที่ เช่น วันนี้เขาอยู่บ้าน;
ใช้ประกอบหลังกริยา แสดงว่ากําลังเป็นอยู่ในขณะนั้น เช่น นอนอยู่
ตั้งอยู่.

[Richard Wordingham]

I think that it has just become a word which Thai didn't know it needed.
<snip>
I don't think I know enough about computers to know what ต้นแบบหุ่น means, or enough Thai to know whether it describes the first computer of Thailand or the verb สร้าง, but whatever it is, why not leave out กำลัง and put อยู่ at the end?

Interestingly, the MFL Northern Thai dictionary defines กำลัง (using Central Thai) by the verb phrase อยู่ในระยะที่ดำเนินอยู่, classifies it as an adjective, and remarks that the real Northern Thai word is อยู่.

[claude06thailand]

We do use กำลัง as auxiliary verb in everyday life. You can find that it means "being" in other dictionaries. Perhaps, it's just a missing entry from the RID.

As for กำลังกิน, it may have two meanings - eating and suitable for eating. The second meaning is rarely used. You should almost always take the first meaning for translation unless it's accompanied with กำลังนอน.

กำลังกินกำลังนอน is an idiom used to describe normal way of life just like you said.

Thanks to you, I know understand the sign "90km/h กำลังดี" that you can see sometimes when driving in Thailand...

As for กำลัง, I do not need a RID entry to accept it as a useful thai word, along with อยู่ and others, whatever they are called adverb or adjective... But this discussion is quite interesting !

[Tgeezer]

As for กำลัง, I do not need a RID entry to accept it as a useful thai word, along with อยู่ and others, whatever they are called adverb or adjective... But this discussion is quite interesting !

I am grateful to everyone who is participating in this discussion.

Pantip's post quoted by Toffeeeman earlier is interesting, I think he says that although กำลัง.. อยู่ is a good enough, using both might grate on some people in some situations.


ttthai.
"As for กำลังกิน, it may have two meanings - eating and suitable for eating."
I don't know how 'suitable for eating' the adjective, might be said if not กำลังกิน = edible ?

Richard W.
"Interestingly, the MFL Northern Thai dictionary defines กำลัง (using Central Thai) by the verb phrase อยู่ในระยะที่ดำเนินอยู่, classifies it as an adjective, and remarks that the real Northern Thai word is อยู่."
You are quite right of course กำลัง in the role under discussion is in the language, and in other dictionaries, I wonder why it is not recorded in the official dictionary.

. I am not the first student to ask this I am sure. I would expect someone to be able to opine on why it is not recorded in the RID. Soon I expect Tod will be back with an answer from his many teacher friends and we may know just how widespread is the need to express the present continuous tense.

Claude
"As for กำลัง, I do not need a RID entry to accept it as a useful Thai word, along with อยู่ and others, whatever they are called adverb or adjective"
The pragmatic approach, but without this we would be discussing 'chat-speak' where there is even less chance of a resolution.

[Tgeezer]

Since you may have missed ttthai's gentle correction here is my early attempt at กำลัง
"All I can see is 'time' ; เวลาเหมาะที่จะกิน appropriate time when you will eat.
We say this though: เขากำลังกิน which is เขาเหมาะที่จะกิน ? "

I have have used the กำลังกิน ว. เหมาะที่จะกิน. in place of the word, nothing wrong with that, but as an adjective of course เขากำลังกิน means he is edible I think.
You can see that if กำลัง has two meanings why กำลังกิน as an adjective has fallen from grace, and the difficulty this gives the lexicographer.
ไก่กำลังกิน The chicken is edible or The chicken eats

This shows how reasoning can go badly wrong when one does not have enough familiarity with the language to see common words when they appear, I am improving though.