Pai le Koa iolo la poka! In honor of Koa's 26th birthday, let's talk briefly about meaning: not meaning as in "significance," but communicative intenion as in "meaning to say." It occurred to me the other month that I wasn't sure how to express this idiomatically, and spent some time considering...
Three parallel options rely on verbs of intention or cognition, and as usual in these kinds of expressions, the personal pronoun is optional:
(ni)mana = "I mean," lit. "(I) intend"
(ni)meti = "I mean," lit. "(I'm) thinking"
(ni)lusano = "I mean," lit. "(I) want/intend to say"
In practice I think there would be very little semantic difference between the three. These would also work in other persons, e.g. Kea sa semana / semeti / selusano? "What do you mean?"
Anther possibility in this discourse context would be (au vitai) "(or) may it be," cf. Portuguese ou seja, as long as the discourse rather than semantic function is primary. The usual translation of this expression is "that is," and in this sense it's similar to English's "(or) like..."
The verb of signifying, on the other hand, is of course sema, as in Kea sa toa i sema? "What does that mean?" In a nominal context it can mean "sign" or "symbol" -- i.e. "that which signifies" -- and sema can also be used in discourse to mean "so," "...and that means...," similarly to nii "in that case" and laa "therefore."
Three parallel options rely on verbs of intention or cognition, and as usual in these kinds of expressions, the personal pronoun is optional:
(ni)mana = "I mean," lit. "(I) intend"
(ni)meti = "I mean," lit. "(I'm) thinking"
(ni)lusano = "I mean," lit. "(I) want/intend to say"
In practice I think there would be very little semantic difference between the three. These would also work in other persons, e.g. Kea sa semana / semeti / selusano? "What do you mean?"
Anther possibility in this discourse context would be (au vitai) "(or) may it be," cf. Portuguese ou seja, as long as the discourse rather than semantic function is primary. The usual translation of this expression is "that is," and in this sense it's similar to English's "(or) like..."
The verb of signifying, on the other hand, is of course sema, as in Kea sa toa i sema? "What does that mean?" In a nominal context it can mean "sign" or "symbol" -- i.e. "that which signifies" -- and sema can also be used in discourse to mean "so," "...and that means...," similarly to nii "in that case" and laa "therefore."
Pusheen and friends send their Koa greetings
It's been quite the year for Koa, with some really important work finally coming together both at the syntactic (e.g. subordinate clauses and other complex clausal structures) and discourse ends of the spectrum, as well as a first formal translation of a serious text! ...well, I think that children's literature is serious business.
Coming up in Koa's next year, hopefully, pending my time and resource availability, is some more big business. On the docket I've currently got more about indefinite nominal marking (heaven help us), serial verbs, locators, adverbial clauses, and a bunch of other miscellany. Kito la poka masii ne -- thanks to everyone who's been following along over the years!
Coming up in Koa's next year, hopefully, pending my time and resource availability, is some more big business. On the docket I've currently got more about indefinite nominal marking (heaven help us), serial verbs, locators, adverbial clauses, and a bunch of other miscellany. Kito la poka masii ne -- thanks to everyone who's been following along over the years!
