toki pona lessons on Gemini - Words and meaning: Semantic Fields

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Words and meaning: semantic fields

Semantic Field: One of the ways language can construct meaning; it operates by assigning each word a broad concept that can be narrowed down by using other words.

Head and Modifier(s)

Head word: Main concept of a segment of text that fulfills a function in a sentence.
Modifer(s): Words that come after the head to narrow down what we're talking about. The closer a modifier is to the head noun, the more relevant it is to its definition.

Examples

soweli - land mammal
soweli tomo - animal of the house - pet
soweli tawa tomo - running animal of the house - pet horse

Loan words, including names, act as modifiers and thus come after the head noun.

musi Likalesen = "game League of Legends"
ma Kanata = "land Canada"
jan Misali = "person Mitch Halley"

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