Re: building from primitives (was Re: Langauge Constets)

Hallo!

On Fri, 30 Nov 2007 07:32:55 EST, steveo wrote:

> In a message dated 11/29/2007 9:58:24 AM Central Standard Time,
> joerg_rhiemeier@WEB.DE writes:
>
>
> > > One mis-conception of Toki Pona that is often spread and repeated for
> > > some reason is that it has only 118 words.  It only has 118 roots plus
> > > a lexicon of compounds.  Look at Sonjas page -- both are given there,
> > > the lexicon being quite small yet, but the idea is quite clear and I
> > > hear the community has more words they mostly agree on.
> >
> > Yes.  TP has 118 *roots*, not 118 *words*.
> >
>
> They are words, not roots.  The compounds are not words, but suggestions for
> being more precise.
Sure, by most definitions TP indeed has only 118 words - but it has
lexicalized idiomatic phrases such as _nena mama_ 'women's breasts'
(lit. 'parent bump') or _toki pona_ (lit. 'speak good').  We are
getting into the thorny ground how to define a "word" here.

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