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'''Lexicalization''' occurs when a phrase becomes solidified as a unit with a fixed meaning. An English example is "high school", which only means a secondary school for higher education. It cannot refer to a school that is physically high up. A "pillow case" is only ever a cloth cover. It can't refer to another kind of case, such as a suitcase containing pillows.
Although [[Common lexicalizations|some phrases are in danger of becoming
==Philosophy==
The goal of Toki Pona is to break complicated concepts down into their important aspects, from the speaker's own perspective. This is dynamic. Different features will be important at different times, in different [[context]]s. And people have different perspectives. The lack of lexicalization is by design.
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{{pu}} presents a car as an example against lexicalization. To a passenger, a car might be
Don't try to find '''"the phrase"''' for whatever concept you're trying to express. Think about it deeply. What is important about it to you? What is important to mention?
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Many concepts also come with cultural baggage, not fitting into Toki Pona's perspective. Any such lexicalization would lose a lot of nuance or import meaning dependent on a language not spoken by all listeners. It would also defeat the insight that Toki Pona is meant to provide.
For example, friendship means different things in different cultures. But what if
==Size constraints==
Because Toki Pona's vocabulary is so small, there are only so many phrases of convenient length to go around. In other words, Toki Pona has limited space for lexicalized compounds.
Let's estimate that there are about 120 [[content word]]s<ref group="note">[[How many words does toki pona have?|The exact number of content words would vary.]]</ref>. The amount of 2-word phrases would be about 120<sup>2</sup> = 14 400. That might sound like a lot, but many of these would be for single words from other languages, like
If enough head–[[modifier]] phrases were reserved in this way, modifiers would become much less useful. For example, you could not translate "red ball" as
Considering the millions of concepts and phrases from all cultures, languages, and fields and subcultures with dedicated jargon, all 1 728 000 of the 3-word phrases could conceivably be filled up. Modifiers and simple [[preposition]]al phrases would become nearly useless—you could not translate "big car" as
==Learning==
Every phrase lexicalized is another thing for everyone to memorize.
Much of Toki Pona's popularity and charme comes from its small lexicon. There are only 134 commonly accepted words [[ijo Linku#Word usage surveys|as of 2022]]. Even if you include the 16 multi-word phrases in
If Toki Pona were more eager to lexicalize, that count would almost certainly enter the thousands. This would make the language far more difficult to learn, while costing it the appeal of its simplicity. The phrases would also be quite arbitrarily assigned, creating even more rote memorization.
Saying "the term for 'car' is
==Notes==
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==References==
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