Talk:Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns

From Toki Pona

Pronouns in Toki Pona don't indicate whether an action is being done to the same person or to a different person. For example, the following sentence can be interpreted in more than one way:

mama li telo e ona.	The mother washes herself. (same person) The mother washes him or her. (somebody else)

In the first case, ona is the same person as mama. In the second, ona is a different person.

sama and ante

To make your idea more clear, you can use the modifiers sama "same" and ante "different". Compare:

mama li telo e ona sama.	The mother washes herself. (same person)
mama li telo e ona ante.	The mother washes him or her. (somebody else)

each other

In a reciprocal construction, each of the participants plays both the role of doer and doee with respect to each other. sama can be used to modify the verb or the direct object.

jan Palu en jan Lija li olin sama. jan Palu en jan Lija li olin e ona sama.	Palu and Lija love one another.

This is like saying Palu loves Lija, and Lija loves Palu.

mije lili en meli lili li kipisi sama e linja ona. mije lili en meli lili li kipisi e linja ona sama.	The boy and the girl cut each other's hair.

They are beside each other. They are parallel. ona li lon poka pi ona sama.