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====Pronouns====
{{Main|Pronouns}}Toki Pona has three personal pronouns and one demonstrative. None of the pronouns specify gender nor number, that is up for interpretation.
====Numbers====
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Revision as of 15:43, 21 December 2023
Toki Pona grammar is the set of structural rules of Toki Pona. This includes the structure of phrases, clauses, sentences, and whole texts. This article describes a generalized view of a diversity of styles of speech or varieties of Toki Pona, over a wide span of time from the two decades since its creation in 2001.
Toki Pona is an analytic language, meaning that it conveys meaning through combination of words and particles as opposed to inflection, such as with affixes. Grammatical categories such as number, gender, tense, aspect, and mood are not obligatorily marked and are instead expressed through different means. The basic word order is subject–verb–object (SVO), as in English. Toki Pona is mostly a head-initial language, meaning that modifiers follow the words that they modify.
Word classes
Content words
Pronouns
Toki Pona has three personal pronouns and one demonstrative. None of the pronouns specify gender nor number, that is up for interpretation.
Numbers
Names
Prepositions
Preverbs
Particles
Interjections
Syntax
The basic word order of Toki Pona is strictly subject–verb–object (SVO). These arguments are introduced or separated using particles, namely the particle li introduces the predicate[a] (an action or state of the sentence), and the particle e introduces the direct object (that which the action is affecting). The particle li is used with any subject, apart from the words mi or sina alone, that is any third-person subject, as well as complex subjects (those composed of more than one word) with the words mi or sina.
There may be more complements, such as prepositional phrases and context phrases. Prepositional phrases are introduced with any preposition and normally go after the predicate and direct object, if any. Context phrases are introduced at the start of the phrase and are separated from the main sentence with la.
Context la SUBJECT (li) VERB e OBJECT + Prepositional Phrase
Context phrases
Context phrases or context clauses is a grammatical unit that adds contextual information and separated from the rest of the sentence by the particle la. It may be composed of a either a content phrase, a prepositional phrase, or an entire sentence.
Notes
- ↑ The words verb and predicate are frequently used interchangeably in the analysis of Toki Pona grammar.
Development and usage | jan Sonja · Toki Pona: The Language of Good (2014) · Tokiponidos · Software (Tools · Fonts) · suno pi toki pona · Toki Pona census · Toki Pona Dictionary (2021) · UCSUR · Linku · ISO 639-3 |
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Conventions | Phonology (Phonotactics) · Words (Tokiponization) · Grammar (Word order) · Social conventions · Writing systems (sitelen Lasina · sitelen pona · sitelen sitelen) · luka pona (sign language) · Number systems · Calendar systems · Styles (pu · pu-rism · ku · Nonstandard) |
Philosophy | Minimalism · Context · Circumlocution · Expression · Lexicalization · Multiple sentences · Comparisons |
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