Postby loteni » Tue Aug 09, 2016 10:41 am
Reading pu, is not like reading a newspaper.
I am not saying that is "all" them phrases can mean, I am saying context free, most probably that is what they will mean *1. This applies no matter if you like it or not. Of course you are free to continue to ignore the official Toki Pona, if you want.
Idioms don't actually exist in the official langauge, that is just a sly way to increase the number of words by fusing compounds. Sonja explains this on page 10, under ******BENEFITS******* so no, tomo tawa is not an idiom or new compound for car, but from the perspective of a passenger it is a nicely fitting phrase. Just as ilo tawa, is not an idiom for car, but from perspective of the driver, its a nicely fitting phrase...etc....
Context, perspective, and most importantly empathy is really key in Toki Pona.
The key phrase in the book, that I think you are have difficulty understanding, is this one, on page 10 ;
"An inherent idea of goodness is transparent throughout the language."
Mediate on "inherent idea", especially "TRANSPARENT" -- it is transparent, you must be able to see this, and it is ; "THROUGHOUT the language" ; yes it is an inherent idea of GOODNESS, obviously throughout the entire language.
*1 -- with the sometimes variants; sometimes averagely, never, sometimes - but not that much, sometimes -- most of the time; sometimes -- all the time...
[EDIT]
I think it is strange anyone would have a problem with that anyway, since it is a most straightforward reading, even with a very rudimentary understanding of the language.
It is worth noting that all the "possible" phrases can be switched with "permissible" as well, since ken as a PRE-VERB is can/may.
I think it is strange also, that I am feeling the need write this :-
The probabilities ive assigned are technically correct, but ofcourse we generally don't use natural language in as much of a restrictive way.
We say "it is definitely the case" -- technically this means it is impossible not be the case; but we say things like that to emphasis our confidence that it is the case, not necessarily to say it is impossible that it wont be. Obviously this applies to how we might use such strict definite probability assignments in the natural flow of conversation.
We go further in language; We say; "I eat all the time"; obviously logically false, but it is a well accepted form of phrase, merely emphasizing I eat alot.
We go even further; we say; "I literally never stop eating"; again obviously logically false, but quite fine in natural conversational friendly speech; just drawing attention to our over emphasis of eating alot.
Last edited by
loteni on Tue Aug 09, 2016 11:38 am, edited 2 times in total.
Follower of the official dialect of toki pona as presented in the official book; Toki Pona, The Language of Good by Sonja Lang.