'en' after 'tawa' and 'kepeken'?

Language learning: How to speak Toki Pona, translation problems, advice, memory aids, tools and methods to learn Toki Pona and other languages faster
Lingva lernado: Kiel paroli Tokiponon, tradukproblemoj, konsiloj, memoraj helpiloj, iloj kaj metodoj por pli rapide lerni Tokiponon kaj aliajn lingvojn
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janAetherStar
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'en' after 'tawa' and 'kepeken'?

Post by janAetherStar »

So, I've always been a bit confused about this. Is this just English seeping in to toki pona or is this correct? I started doing this one day while writing toki pona songs/poems and stuff, and never really thought about it until I started teaching. There's a chance I've butchered something here. With 'tawa' and 'kepeken', do you need to make an entirely new sentence (e.g. ona li pona tawa ma li pona tawa ali), or can you use 'en' (e.g. ona li pona tawa ma en ali) or can you say 'en tawa' (I think this one may be compleeeetely incorrect...) (ona li pona tawa ma en tawa ali)?

Thank you all,
janAetherStar
ale li pona. :)
sina o sona e ni.
janKipo
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Re: 'en' after 'tawa' and 'kepeken'?

Post by janKipo »

Yes to all three. The only prohibitions on 'en' are between sentences, between predicates and between DOs. So, *within* predicates and DOs (the mixture "and") and between anything else within a sentence is OK. Some of this is clear from the earliest material (the prohibitions), others got worked out over time (the mixture cases) and some have just never been discussed (your questions) but got decided by default. The interesting question is whether there are significant differences among 'li pon tawa x li pona tawa y', 'li pona tawa x en lawa y', and 'li pona tawa x en y'. The Lojbanist in me wants to say they are all the same and just short forms of the two underlying sentences (joined by an unexpressed 'en'), but I expect that in living tp, subtle differences will arise.
Kuti
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Re: 'en' after 'tawa' and 'kepeken'?

Post by Kuti »

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jan Pinsen
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Re: 'en' after 'tawa' and 'kepeken'?

Post by jan Pinsen »

mi wile sona e ni tawa nimi "pi". jan Kipo o, pona!
I wanted to know this about "pi". Thank you, jan Kipo!
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