Abstract:
Street names in Bangkok are of a large number and of intriguing characteristics. This thesis aims at studying the naming of streets in Bangkok. The three objectives include to study the origins and meanings of street names in Bangkok, to analyze their linguistic features and to investigate the factors influencing the street naming. The total number of street names investigated is 371. The analysis reveals that the origins and meanings of street names can be categorized into 6 groups --1) important places or nearby environments (163 names), 2) persons names, surnames, or titles conferred by the king (109), 3) beliefs and values in propitiousness (56 names), 4) important events (23 names), 5) characteristics of people living in nearby communities (12 names), and 6) utensils (8 names) respectively. Based on structure, street names can be categorized into 2 groups, namely the single component structure and the multi-component structure. The components of street names include proper nouns, geographical terms, prepositions,and descriptive word. Some street names in Bangkok are distinctive in terms of sound and meaning. The remarkable phonetic features include alliteration, rhyme and partial repetition. The outstanding semantic features include the use of synonyms and sets of shared meanings. The factors that have an influence upon the naming of streets in Bangkok are size of the streets, location of the streets, period of street construction, and values and practices in Thai culture. Firstly, the size of the streets symbolically indicates the importance of the streets as well as the street names. It is found that the main streets with 8 to 10 lanes are usually named after the kings and some important events. Secondly, the location of the streets can be physically and historically meaningful. Correspondingly, it is found that street names in different locations tend to be different. Remarkably, street names in the inner areas of Bangkok are mostly named after nearby environments or places, persons, and important events. Thirdly, the period of street construction differentiates the street names due to policies or favors of persons in authority. Lastly, values and practices in Thai culture also play a part in street naming. Many streets are named in honor of the monarchical institution and as a remembrance of people who did something good for the country.