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Head dropping: Difference between revisions
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{{Experimental}}
:''This page describes several different ways of how toki pona is or could be used. Some of these ways are experimental, plus the description of what is sometimes referred to as "head dropping" is in actuality disputed and might talk about something completely different. Therefore, this article should not be read as being authoritative in any meaningful way!''▼
{{Hatnote|This analysis is contentious and the patterns described here are more often explained and analyzed in different ways. This analysis might not be understood by most speakers.}}
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In toki pona, a phrase consisting of at least 2 words can be analysed as having a "head" in front (described in pu and other places as "noun" or "verb") and one or more "modifiers" ("adjective" and similar) following the head. The head describes the main concept of the phrase, so it is obviously quite important. However, there are
==
Several things might be and have been mistaken for head dropping - but while they might appear the same on the surface, the underlying mechanism is usually another.
If a concept is previously described with a modifier, you might get away with using the modifier in the remainder of the text
<blockquote>ilo luka en ilo tu li lon. luka li utala e tu.<br>
mi jo e len poki. poki ni li lili la noka mi li ken ala lon insa ona.</blockquote>
Like most
===tenpo dropping===
Modifiers that add onto "tenpo" are already seen as carrying the intended meaning without "tenpo". While this might not be precise enough to provide proper context to everyone, using one of the modifiers as a head can already provide the same meaning:
<blockquote>tenpo suno wan
tenpo sike tu
▲==head noun dropping==
:''See also [[jan't]]''▼
When referring to a group of beings that aren't all represented by the same head noun, there are some strategies to talk to or about them, and one of these is dropping the head - especially when it comes to quantity modifiers:▼
===head noun dropping===
<blockquote>soweli ale en kala ale en akesi ale o --> ale o<br>▼
waso mute en jan mute li lon --> mute li lon</blockquote>▼
▲When referring to a group of beings that aren't all represented by the same head noun, there are some strategies to talk to or about them, and one of these is
==head noun dropping in front of names==
Usually, a name for something cannot stand alone. When loaning the name for "Kanada", "ma Kanata" is used, with "ma" as a head. Here are some ways a head might be dropped anyway:
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This also reflects a pre-pu usage where modifiers in general were more likely to work as standalone predicates.
2) Non-capitalised names: For toki pona users who only wear a label without capitalisation, it can be ambiguous/unimportant if the label is a
<blockquote>nata li sona e lipamanka</blockquote>
==Onomatopoeia/standalone non-toki-pona words==
There is no agreed-upon way to realise onomatopoeia beyond "mu" (in fact, the traditional way would be to not use specific words, and only use "kalama" or "mu"). However, one idea to represent them in toki pona is to assume that any sound could be used like a name, which would usually require "kalama" or "mu" as a head. But one way to expand how names work in general could be to interpret any name or other kinds of words that are not part of the toki pona vocabulary as *sounds*, which makes "jan Tana" mean "a person associated with the sound Tana". As a result, "Tana" on its own would just be a random sound "Tana". In onomatopoeia, this could be used in one of 2 ways:
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<blockquote>mi A A A</blockquote>
I go "hahaha"
[[Category:Styles of
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