I thought I'd start a modals discussion thread and offer a couple lists to work with. The first are modals currently in use and those which have been proposed as possibilities. The second is a list of the common intrasitive sentences, all mi (v). The third is the common transitive sentences that can take a human DO, all mi (vt) e sina or mi (vt/prep) sina. The fourth are the common transitive sentences with ijo or simple non-human DO. Hope this helps for testing out patterns and seeing how they operate.janKipo wrote:Y'wanna distinguish tween new uses and realizes old potentials. I say that 'weka' already has the potential to be a modal and we're just realizing it. I say this because I don't want to be accused of innovations when I say that 'pini' 'open' and 'awen' are modals, which I do because they fit a very common pattern with 'kama.' Now, 'weka' is less clearly in a pattern: nothing else is quite parallel to it semantically (and it is semantically not very exactly like what is wanted), but it strikes me as the way to go with the de-/un- line for activities (nasin pi weka tomo being a major philosophical line at the moment - or is it going to be 'tomo weka' as a modifier?). The use of 'ala' in this role does not seem to me to be so useful: transitive 'ala' is probably "destroy. obliterate" and intransitive 'ala' is just -- as with German -- to be negative in various ways (deny, be pessimistic or gloomy). But that does open some other possibilities, mainly looking for other verbs that might have further uses. Sonja has toyed with 'lukin' as a modal for trying, someone else has used 'mu' transitively as "talk gibberish about," and so on. A nice session of winging ideas might do a lot to fill out the lacunae in the word lists in terms of multiple uses of words (actually, wouldn't 'alasa' make sense for 'try' -- see what fun awaits!)
MODALS AND PROPOSED MODALS:
alasa
awen
kama
ken
lukin
open
pini
weka
wile
SIMPLE INTRASITIVES:
mi alasa.
mi ante.
mi awen.
mi esun.
mi ike.
mi jaki.
mi kalama.
mi kama.
mi ken.
mi kute.
mi lawa.
mi len.
mi lete.
mi lon.
mi lukin.
mi mama.
mi moku.
mi moli.
mi musi.
mi olin.
mi pakala.
mi pali.
mi pilin.
mi pini.
mi pona.
mi seli.
mi sama.
mi seme?
mi sitelen.
mi sona.
mi suli.
mi suwi.
mi tawa.
mi telo.
mi toki.
mi unpa.
mi utala.
mi wawa.
mi wile.
SIMPLE TRANSITIVES with human DO:
mi alasa e sina.
mi anpa e sina.
mi ante e sina.
mi awen e sina.
mi ijo e sina.
mi ike e sina.
mi jaki e sina.
mi kama e sina.
mi ken e sina.
mi kute e sina.
mi lawa e sina.
mi lon e sina.
mi lukin e sina.
mi moli e sina.
mi musi e sina.
mi namako e sina.
mi nasa e sina.
mi olin e sina.
mi pilin e sina.
mi pona e sina.
mi sama sina.
mi seme e sina?
mi sitelen e sina.
mi sona e sina.
mi tan sina.
mi tawa sina.
mi telo e sina.
mi toki e sina.
mi unpa e sina.
mi utala e sina.
mi wawa e sina.
mi wile e sina.
SIMPLE TRANSITIVES:
mi alasa e soweli.
mi anpa e ijo.
mi ante e ijo.
mi awen e moli.
mi ante e ijo.
mi esun e ijo.
mi ijo e olin.
mi ike e ijo.
mi jaki e ma.
mi jan e ijo.
mi kalama e ijo.
mi kama e ijo.
mi ken e pali.
mi kepeken e ijo.
mi kule e tomo.
mi kute e kalama.
mi lawa e tomo tawa.
mi lete e tomo.
mi lon tomo.
mi lukin e ijo.
mi moku e moku.
mi moli e pipi.
mi mute e ijo.
mi namako e moku.
mi open e ijo.
mi pakala e ijo.
mi pali e pali.
mi pana e ijo.
mi pilin e ijo.
mi pimeja e tomo.
mi pini e pali.
mi pona e ijo.
mi seli e tomo.
mi seme e ijo?
mi sike e suno.
mi sin e ijo.
mi sitelen e sitelen.
mi sona e ijo.
mi suli e ijo.
mi suno e ijo.
mi suwi e moku.
mi tan ma.
mi tawa tomo.
mi telo e ijo.
mi toki e ijo.
mi tu e ijo.
mi utala e ijo.
mi wan e ijo.
mi wawa e ijo.
mi weka e ijo.
mi wile e ijo.