nimi sin sin (eĉ plu novaj vortoj, even more new words)

[janTe]

In French, the word "virgule" means comma. In English, it means slash. (I think the slash and the comma were the same thing in Latin.)

I'm happy to use the word "pu" as a comma and as the official Toki Pona book.

[janMato]

sina pu "you have the official Toki Pona book".

This could still mean "you are an uncarved block," as in metaphorical speech for a "student"

If this is indeed the daoist jargon, I suppose this could also be used for a physical cube.

pu pi telo kiwen. Ice cube
Charlie Brown = pu lawa. Block head.

[janKipo]

Both more cheering than "uncarved block" though neither seems likely.

[janTe]

If this is indeed the daoist jargon, I suppose this could also be used for a physical cube.

pu pi telo kiwen. Ice cube
Charlie Brown = pu lawa. Block head.

The P'u of taoism is more about being natural and unprocessed, rather than block-shaped.

So, if "pu" has other meanings, I think it's more likely to be:
moku pu - raw food
kasi pu - unhewn log

[janKipo]

Indeed, a cube is very unlike a pu, except for the odd crystal here and there. On the other hand, some of the typical Chinese manifestations of pu, while they appear to be natural -- the products of wind and water on stone -- are actually the result of a good deal of human intervention (I remember a lecture at a garden somewhere out of Shanghai on how the stones that looked so rugged and natural (full of holes and channels and the like from streams and wind) were shaped over generations by people in the business of supplying such thing to wealthy gardeners).

[janTepi]

As for the word kipisi, it apparently means "to cut", as stated in http://www.aboriginemundi.com/index.php ... new-words/, and supported by http://en.tokipona.org/wiki/Talk:mun. The author of the first piece wonders why we need the word kipisi, when the word tu already means "to cut", but I think the example of "mama kipisi" demonstrates why. "mama tu" would mean "two founders"!

"kipisi" is translated as "to cut" here too: http://en.tokipona.org/wiki/Talk:Reflex ... l_pronouns

[Logomachist]

I would not like it if "pu" is only used as a comma. Why not use an actual comma? It's what everyone is already doing and what we're used to.

"pu" as something in a natural state? Or as student? I don't know how I feel about those.

[jan Josan]

It probably best if we just leave pu to rest until (and if) jan Sonja adds it in to the official words. Up until now it has just been rampant speculation.

[janKipo]

I'm not even clear what it means for a word to be a comma. I take commas to be a matter of writing and words to be (in intention at least) spoken, Written commas seem to represent either features of the overall flow of spoken sentences or a level of grammatical analysis that goes beyond what is said. In the latter sense, they might be useful in tp, and, indeed, I have suggested one as part of a general scheme to allow prepositional phrases in NPs. But Mato's riff on 'pu' -- which may turn out to be right, of course -- goes way beyond anything a comma might do.

[jan Kanso]

Adding new words is not just expanding the dictionary. Adding new words creates a shift in the meaning of the other words. So it's something very hazardous ...

On the other hand, nobody talks about reducing the vocabulary, although groups like "oko/lukin" or "uta/lupa" could obviously be reduced to one word each ...

jan Kanso