ศาลาชุมนุม

[Tgeezer]

หลายวันมานี้ เขานอนไม่ค่อยหลับ ไม่ทราบว่าเป็นอะไรไป

You have the English but specifically it says; Many days up-to-now these. put 'these' at the front in English.
หลาย is often translated as 'several'.
มา means 'up to the present time' and as has been said makes past tense.

[pensive]

How can นี้ be a demonstrative - it follows a verb? I think it must be a marker.

[DonSena]

How can นี้ be a demonstrative - it follows a verb? I think it must be a marker.

Think of หลายวันมานี้ as an elliptical reduction of หลายวันมา [ถึงวัน] นี้

[SlickMan]

sorry yes khun keith is right its used to show the past tense

Thanks for your very clear explanation...

[SlickMan]

พอหมดเวลา ครูก็ให้นักเรียนกล่าวขอบคุณและลาเจ้าหน้าที่กลับมา

Once time was up, the teacher had her students thank [and take leave of] the officers, as they returned [back to the school].

Thanks for your answer.

But I have some questions.

1. Why does the verb กลับ take on the subject ครูและนักเรียน and not เจ้าหนัาที่?

2. What is the meaning of มา in this sentence?
พอหมดเวลา ครูก็ให้นักเรียนกล่าวขอบคุณและลาเจ้าหน้าที่กลับมา

On reexamination, it seems that กลับ is not here functioning as a verb after all. It is most likely a complementive meaning 'in return." There does happen to be a verb-verb or verb complementive sequence ลากลับ meaning "to take leave of someone.'

Thus, ลา [object] กลับมา is to take proper leave of the object, probably with a sense of acknowledgement of the hospitality shown by the object in receiving in audience the subject (ครูและนักเรียน). The object here, the เจ้าหน้าที่, seems to have allotted a period of time to the visitors from the school.

The use of มา is a verbal postposition to the main verb ลา ... กลับ showing that the movement of the action is extended directionally toward the speaker (or writer). The larger context of the sentence should indicate the locational reference toward which this action is continued.

This sentence arises from a passage in my Thai textbook which describes a group of pupils led by their teachers visit a central post office.

So do you mean that ลา ... กลับ should be treated as a single unit which means "say goodbye to someone"?

and you explanation of "มา"... but I think the action of " say goodbye" is towards the object, not the speaker. So can I use ลา ... กลัีบไป instead?

[DonSena]

พอหมดเวลา ครูก็ให้นักเรียนกล่าวขอบคุณและลาเจ้าหน้าที่กลับมา

Once time was up, the teacher had her students thank [and take leave of] the officers, as they returned [back to the school].

Thanks for your answer.

But I have some questions.

1. Why does the verb กลับ take on the subject ครูและนักเรียน and not เจ้าหนัาที่?

2. What is the meaning of มา in this sentence?
พอหมดเวลา ครูก็ให้นักเรียนกล่าวขอบคุณและลาเจ้าหน้าที่กลับมา
On reexamination, it seems that กลับ is not here functioning as a verb after all. It is most likely a complementive meaning 'in return." There does happen to be a verb-verb or verb complementive sequence ลากลับ meaning "to take leave of someone.'

Thus, ลา [object] กลับมา is to take proper leave of the object, probably with a sense of acknowledgement of the hospitality shown by the object in receiving in audience the subject (ครูและนักเรียน). The object here, the เจ้าหน้าที่, seems to have allotted a period of time to the visitors from the school.

The use of มา is a verbal postposition to the main verb ลา ... กลับ showing that the movement of the action is extended directionally toward the speaker (or writer). The larger context of the sentence should indicate the locational reference toward which this action is continued.

This sentence arises from a passage in my Thai textbook which describes a group of pupils led by their teachers visit a central post office.

So do you mean that ลา ... กลับ should be treated as a single unit which means "say goodbye to someone"?

and you explanation of "มา"... but I think the action of " say goodbye" is towards the object, not the speaker. So can I use ลา ... กลัีบไป instead?

I agree.

"Once time was up, the teacher had her students thank [and take leave of] the officers, as they returned [back to the school]"

The action of taking leave (saying "good-bye") on the part of teacher and students (subject) is directed toward the officers (the object). The speaker (unidentified) is not an actual part of this sentence.

ลากลับ is an actual compound, usable like a single word.

[SlickMan]

พอหมดเวลา ครูก็ให้นักเรียนกล่าวขอบคุณและลาเจ้าหน้าที่กลับมา

Once time was up, the teacher had her students thank [and take leave of] the officers, as they returned [back to the school].

Thanks for your answer.

But I have some questions.

1. Why does the verb กลับ take on the subject ครูและนักเรียน and not เจ้าหนัาที่?

2. What is the meaning of มา in this sentence?
พอหมดเวลา ครูก็ให้นักเรียนกล่าวขอบคุณและลาเจ้าหน้าที่กลับมา
On reexamination, it seems that กลับ is not here functioning as a verb after all. It is most likely a complementive meaning 'in return." There does happen to be a verb-verb or verb complementive sequence ลากลับ meaning "to take leave of someone.'

Thus, ลา [object] กลับมา is to take proper leave of the object, probably with a sense of acknowledgement of the hospitality shown by the object in receiving in audience the subject (ครูและนักเรียน). The object here, the เจ้าหน้าที่, seems to have allotted a period of time to the visitors from the school.

The use of มา is a verbal postposition to the main verb ลา ... กลับ showing that the movement of the action is extended directionally toward the speaker (or writer). The larger context of the sentence should indicate the locational reference toward which this action is continued.

This sentence arises from a passage in my Thai textbook which describes a group of pupils led by their teachers visit a central post office.

So do you mean that ลา ... กลับ should be treated as a single unit which means "say goodbye to someone"?

and you explanation of "มา"... but I think the action of " say goodbye" is towards the object, not the speaker. So can I use ลา ... กลัีบไป instead?

I agree.

"Once time was up, the teacher had her students thank [and take leave of] the officers, as they returned [back to the school]"

The action of taking leave (saying "good-bye") on the part of teacher and students (subject) is directed toward the officers (the object). The speaker (unidentified) is not an actual part of this sentence.

ลากลับ is an actual compound, usable like a single word.

But I can't find this entry, ลากลับ, from the dictionary of this website....

[DonSena]

ลากลับ is found in the hard-cover dictionary of MR Haas
under the more general heading ลา :

" ลากลับ /laaklàb/ to take one's leave, say good-bye
(when departing to return home, return to work, etc.) "

[Tgeezer]

ลากลับ is found in the hard-cover dictionary of MR Haas
under the more general heading ลา :

" ลากลับ /laaklàb/ to take one's leave, say good-bye
(when departing to return home, return to work, etc.) "

I may as well reply although not asked.
The clue in the dictionary here is ลาคลอด 'take leave to have a baby'. So you say ลา then the reason for ลา which you could call the object I suppose. ลากลับ ลากิจ ลาพักผ่อน ลาปว่ย; its as simple as that!

[DonSena]

ลากลับ is found in the hard-cover dictionary of MR Haas
under the more general heading ลา :

" ลากลับ /laaklàb/ to take one's leave, say good-bye
(when departing to return home, return to work, etc.) "

I may as well reply although not asked.
The clue in the dictionary here is ลาคลอด 'take leave to have a baby'. So you say ลา then the reason for ลา which you could call the object I suppose. ลากลับ ลากิจ ลาพักผ่อน ลาปว่ย; its as simple as that!

These are all actual compounds, rather than single lexemes (lexeme: a word-like unit).

Compounding is a major feature of Thai morphology (combining meaningful units called "morphs" into larger constructions) and combines a first constituent (the "head") with a second. The "head" is so called because it can stand by itself to represent the whole compound when the meaning of the compound is understood in context. There is no limit in Thai to the number of possible compounds in the language

The three most commonly-occurring compounds are those that begin with nouns, verbs and adjectives, in that order. The resulting compound is likewise a noun, verb or adjective, respectively. (There are some few exceptions to this correspondence.)

We notice that ช่างตัดผม 'barber' and ห้องเรียน 'classroom' are nouns even though ตัด and เรียน are verbs,
and that ลาป่วย is a verb though ป่วย is an adjective.