Duality

The limitations of Toki Pona can yield new perspectives where multiple concepts can be thought of as the same thing.

Most words in widespread use cover a broad semantic space. For example, lon as a preposition means "at, in, on". In content word positions, however, it can refer to truth and existence, because something that is true must exist somewhere. This insight works in reverse; prepositional lon can also refer to existence on a hypothetical, or in a work of fiction. This gives the sense that location, truth, and existence are different facets of the same idea.

The grammar of Toki Pona can also express this kind of duality. When using a content word in verb position, it can be translated differently depending on whether it is transitive. ona li pona can mean "They are good", ona li pona e mi can mean "They improve me", and ona li pona tawa mi can mean "I like them". These translations of pona (to be good, to improve someone, to be liked) give different phrasings of the same idea, at different levels of specificity.

This quality of Toki Pona is a reason for the pushback against li X e X phrasings. Since toki encompasses languages and speech, expressing both at the same time, it is redundant to say mi toki e toki pona when mi toki pona still includes both aspects. This then presents the Toki Pona language as one specific style of toki pona (good speech, speaking well).