This section will expand on the very rudimentary sentences we saw in §1. Specifically, it's about how you can use a subject other than just mi, tila or li.
We have seen how to make sentences where the subject is mi, tila or li. The subject simply goes before the verb:
How about a sentence where the subject is something else? In that case, putting it before another word does not create a sentence, only a group of words:
So: ka pula is not a sentence, but mi pula, tila pula, and li pula are sentences. To make ka the subject of a sentence, we take the sentence with li as its subject and add a new, third thing to it:
The word li is doing something similar in sentences (a) and (b): when it goes right before the verb, it turns the string of words into a sentence. There's also a difference. In (a), li is referring to anyone or anything else (than the speaker mi or listener tila), and it's left up to context to clear up who or what. In (b), li is only there to refer to the expression before it, i.c. ka.
In short, a sentence always needs two things in it: one of the words mi, tila or li; and an expression (of one or more words) that acts like the predicate. After a simple word or phrase, li reprises the earlier phrase, because it wasn't allowed to appear just before the predicate. Here are some more examples of such sentences:
In some cases, though, you can use mi or tila in a similar way. This happens when the preceding phrase starts with mi or tila: to point back to the longer subject, the shorter subject 'echoes' the first pronoun. As a head, mi/tila can be modified by any word; among the more common modifiers are tu ('a lot, much, many, amount, group') and a ('all, only, alone').
In (a), mi tu is reprised by mi. Likewise, in (b), tila echoes tila a. In (c), two subjects are joined together by the word lu, and referred back to by mi. I will discuss lu in more detail later.
This creates a parallel between the words mi, tila and li: each can appear as the subject on its own, and each can point back to a longer phrase. In the latter case, which of them you use depends on who is being described by the subject: is it the speaker (mi), the listener (tila) or neither of them (li)? The reason li is the most common of the three is simply that you and I are outnumbered by all the things in the world that aren't us.
| Subjects | mi (me) | tila (you) | li (neither) |
|---|---|---|---|
| used on its own | mi pula. | tila pula. | li pula. |
| used to point back | mi tu mi pula. | tila tu tila pula. | li tu li pula. iku li pula. |
Repeating li is unnecessary in *li li pula, as much as repeating mi in *mi mi pula. However, it is possible for two reference words (mi, tila, li) to follow each other in certain situations:
In these sentences, mi/li is modifying muku. The next word, li, is pointing back to muku mi/muku li. Here li can follow another reference word: only the first word can tell us whether the short subject is you or me or not. Sentence (c) has li as its subject, followed by li as a predicate.
new words: