Names of Fishing Boats in Samut Songkhram Province : An Ethnosemantic Study

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze names of fishing boats in Samut Songkhram province with regard to naming methods sources, meanings beliefs, and values. The data are 350 names. The results of the study are as follows. Names of the fishing boats in Samut Songkhram province are composed of two to seven syllables. Four-syllable names are the most frequent. There are 4 ways naming fishing boats : word-word combination, word-number combination, abbreviation-word combination, and abbreviation-word-number combination. The second kind is the most frequent. In terms of sources and meanings, the names of the fishing boats can be categorized into 16 groups, [names in the group of “relationship to other fishing boats” appear most frequent]. The above findings show a lot of beliefs and values of Thai people, their belief in luck and value about families were prominent among the names of fishing boats in Samut Songkhram province.