Preverb marking
Preverb marking is a set of experimental nasins, which explicitly separate the preverb of a sentence from the predicate, often with the use of nimi sin. The words ta, ni and ja are established options for a preverb-marking particle. Using them allows unambiguous usage of all content words as descriptors for a main state or process.
The syntax of each of the preverb-marking methods is identical when a sentence has a single preverb. The methods diverge when multiple preverbs are involved, with ja requiring the particle to be repeated, whereas ta can mark multiple preverbs at once. The word ja allows for modification of the preverb, which is not possible with ta except for negation with ala. The ta method and the ni method work different semantically, and ja has undefined semantics.
ja
| Pronunciation | /ja//j/ sounds like English Y, as in "fjord" or "hallelujah". |
|---|---|
| Usage | 2023: N/A This word has not been surveyed for. Most speakers likely don't understand it.
|
| Book and era | No book |
| Part of speech | Particle |
ja was coined in 2021 by a group of people, most notably wuwojiti Haev and jan Pensa.[1] It was made to allow experimental preverbs to be used without ambiguity.
Syntax
ja follows a preverb, separating it from the following predicate or from another preverb.
mi tawa ja telo e kasi.
I'm going (in order) to water the plants.
mi open ja olin ja telo e kasi.
I'm starting to love watering the plants.
ja allows unambiguous modification of preverbs by putting multiple content words before it.
mi wile mute ja sona e ni
I really want to know this.
Well-established preverbs can be marked with ja for clarification, but this is not required. When using well-established preverbs in the same sentence, all preverbs before the last ja should be marked by ja to avoid ambiguity, but preverbs after the last ja can remain unmarked.
together with lo
By suggestion of jan Kita,[2] ja was also designed to work in combination with the experimental preposition-marking particle lu (which was later renamed to lo) to allow for unambiguous modification of prepositions.
mi pali e ni lo kepeken wawa ja luka mi.
I made this by using my hands with a lot of force.
soko li lo ante mute ja leko.
Mushrooms are very different from squares.
Semantics
The meanings of preverbs marked by ja are not explicitly defined. It was meant to work with already proposed experimental preverbs rather than being used as a regular method to create new preverbs. However, it can also be used with any system of regular preverb derivation, including the ones proposed for ta and ni.
ta
| Pronunciation | /ta/ |
|---|---|
| Usage | 2023: Not notable (1% ↗︎ ) Most speakers don't understand this word.2022: Obscure (0%)
|
| Book and era | No book |
| Part of speech | Particle |
ta was coined by jan Tepo and further developed by the keyring system in 2023. The keyring system intended it as an alternative to ja without the need to repeat the particle for multiple preverbs, and with more clearly defined semantics to allow any word to be used as a preverb.[3]
Syntax
ja follows one or more preverbs, separating them from the following predicate.
mi open olin ta telo e kasi.
I'm starting to love watering the plants.
ala can still negate preverbs in a ta phrase.
The "canonical" lexical class of preverbs (alasa, awen, ken, kama, lukin/oko, sona, wile) do not need ta to be interpreted as preverbs.
Semantics
Meanings of preverbs marked by ta are usually determined with guidelines based on the word's transitivity.
For transitive verbs (such as alasa, where the object is the patient of the predicate), the preverb affects the main predicate by treating a preverb as a layer over the main predicate. In other words, the preverb has the same meaning as when it acts as a transitive verb, and the main predicate relates to the preverb the same way as how a direct object would relate to the transitive verb. For example:
mi utala ta toki e ijomi utala ta toki e ijo.
I resist saying something.
[semantically equivalent to "mi utala e (toki e ijo)," or "mi utala e ni: mi toki e ijo."]
For intransitive verbs (such as ken, where the object is made to be or do the predicate), the preverb phrase affects the main predicate by specifying the preverb word:
mi pakala ta toki e ijomi pakala ta toki e ijo.
I failed to say something.
[semantically equivalent to "mi toki e ijo la ni li pakala"]
jan-mute li nasin ta tawa() tomo-palijan mute li nasin ta tawa tomo pali.
Many people have a habit/duty of going to work.
ni
jan Tepo abandoned ta in favor of using the word ni to mark preverbs.
For example, "mi utala ni toki e ijo" is meant as an abbreviation of "mi utala ni: mi toki e ijo," which means the same as "mi toki e ijo. ni li utala."[4]
External links
See also
- lo, a marginal preposition marker
References
- ↑ (28 July 2021). [Message posted in the
#nimisin for marking preverbsthread in the#sona-muschannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. Discord. Retrieved 3 February 2024. - ↑ jan Kita [@.hecko]. (28 July 2021). [Message posted in the
#nimisin for marking preverbsthread in the#sona-musichannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. Discord. Retrieved 12 March 2024. "may i suggest using the same nimisin for ending compound preps toomi wile ja kama ja sona (lu) kepeken mute ala ja lukin". - ↑ kupikoni [@kupikoni#3673]. (23 January 2023). [Message posted in the
#pali-musichannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. Discord. Retrieved 3 February 2024. "i knew about ja when making ta, but I had complaints about how poorly defined the semantics of content word to pv meaning were and i disliked the idea of repeating the particle for every pv". - ↑ jan Tepo [@tbodt]. (30 July 2023). [Message posted in the
#toki-sulichannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. Discord. Retrieved 3 February 2024.