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Questions: Difference between revisions
Reintegrate and add historical perspective.
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==== ''anu seme'' ====
<blockquote>
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: (literally: you're coming or what?)
: I think you're coming, but please correct me and tell me what is really happening.
: aren't you coming?<ref name=newquestiontype>[http://forums.tokipona.org/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=112 New question type]</ref>
</blockquote>
According to Sonja, this structure is parallel to "the way 'oder' can be used in colloquial German."<ref name=newquestiontype /> In German, "oder" at the end of a sentence is used to form a tag question, <ref>[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oder#Particle Wiktionary]</ref> which "may suggest confidence or lack of confidence, or may be confrontational, defensive, tentative, or rhetorical (not expecting an answer)."<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_question#Uses Wikipedia]</ref> In toki pona, ''anu seme'' is typically used in all of these ways and is extremely common in speech.
=== ''seme'' ===
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; ona li pali e seme? : What are they doing?
; ona li kepeken ilo. : They are using a tool.
== History ==
=== Yes-or-No questions ===
Though in theory the X-''ala''-X structure of toki pona questions could be used to ask about any part of the sentence, in [[pu]] it is only used for the head of a predicate and this use has become standard in the period since.
The original toki pona lessons from 2001<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090828022821/http://bknight0.myweb.uga.edu/toki/about/lesson/tp8.html toki pona Yes-or-No Questions]</ref> include these examples, which may seem strange to modern readers:
<blockquote>
;meli ala meli li lawa e ma ni?
:A woman / not a woman rules that country?
:Does a woman rule that country?
;iki li jan pona sina ala jan pona sina?
:She not-your friend / your friend?
:Is she your friend?
</blockquote>
[[iki]] is an archaic form of the pronoun [[ona]]. By 2005, the form was restricted to the head of a predicate,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050209040639/http://tokipona.nytka.org/lesson/lesson8.html jan Pije Lesson 8]</ref> and the same form is used in [[pu]].<ref>[[pu]] Lesson 7</ref> As of 2023, the form [[#''anu seme''|''anu seme'']] is used for questions about the subject or object of a sentence.
=== ''anu seme'' ===
In 2005, the ''anu seme'' form was still a tag question.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050209035415/http://tokipona.nytka.org/lesson/lesson12.html jan Pije Lesson 12 (original)]</ref> In [[pu]], however, the form is described as identical to the X-''ala''-X form and is presented as a synonymous alternative.<ref>[[pu]] Lesson 7</ref> As of 2023, the ''anu seme'' form is still used as a tag question, though the question of whether pu's synonymous style was ever widely used is still unanswered. An avenue for future research.
== References ==
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