ta'e/na'o

[Colin Fine <C.J.Fine@bradford.ac.uk>]

Jorge asks about the difference between ta'e and na'o.

My suggestion is this:

ta'e is about actual habits.
na'o is about the typical behavour.

When the are used of specified individuals, I think they are quite similar
 (though not
quite - see below). But when they are used with indefinite descriptions or
 anaphora,
ta'e refers to the actual habit of the identified individuals, na'o to the
 behaviour
which might be regarded as typical of them as members or representatives of some
group (the group often being implicit in the description).

Thus
le va tadni cu ta'e klama le ckuso'u = Those students habitually go to the
 library (it is
their habit)

le va tadni cu na'o klama le ckuso'u = Those students typically go to the
 library (it is
typical of them - which doesn't necessarily imply that they do so either
 habitually or
at all, merely that it is typical of the sort of behaviour they exhibit. But
 most often it
will mean that they habitually go).

But

Ro lo tadni cu ta'e klama le ckuso'u = All students habitually go to the library
 (clearly
false)

Ro lo tadni cu na'o klama le ckuso'u = All students typically go to the library
(probably still false, as it is not obviously typical of all students; but some
 people
might claim it as true).


I think part of what I am saying is that ta'e is more or less objective ('more
 or less'
because you can argue about how often constitutes a habit), whereas na'o is a
subjective evaluation (on the part of the speaker)

di'u sidju xu?


mi'e kolin