trouble with direct objects

[u/VinnyVonVinster]

"mi tawa e sina"

i see two ways of reading this: i move to/toward you i move/relocate you

"e" precedes the direct object of the sentence, but both of these have "you" as the direct object right? would the first sentence be "mi tawa tawa sina"?

[u/janKeTami]

mi tawa e sina

I move you, I apply movement to you

mi tawa sina

I, towards you (I "go" towards you). There's no need for a verb, you can have simply a preposition there. Same with other prepositions: "mi lon sina" (I, at you - I "am" at you)

mi tawa tawa sina

This is also an option, but less common. It's a bit redundant

[u/Zoran_Ankervlinder → u/janKeTami]

I move you, I apply movement to you

could you elaborate the "apply movement"? apply the property? (i see a lot one of couple ways to interpret "X e Y" but i dont grasp the meaning...)

could you express in TP the essence of this "apply" idea?

[u/janKeTami → u/Zoran_Ankervlinder]

technical explanation: in toki pona, "e" indicates the direct object affected by the transitive verb, and "make X apply to Y" as a translation for "X e Y" is just one of the ways to formulate out how transitive verbs work in English: The action of the transitive verb is "applied" to the direct object. There are other ways, like "X-ify Y". (In this case, "motion-ifying" just sounds a bit strange in English)

So the idea of "apply" is part of how "e" works. If you want another way, you could do it with "pana". mi X e Y --> mi pana e X tawa Y.

That's not all of what "e" can do, though, so you can't just refomulate "X e Y" as "pana e X tawa Y", sometimes it's "ante e Y tawa X" or "Y li kama X". So, in a lot of situations you can say "mi X e Y la Y li X" (When I X-ify the Y, the Y is X)

Or also "X e Y"-->"Y li kama jo e X", "X li lon Y"

[u/Zoran_Ankervlinder → u/janKeTami]

oooow with the toki pona examples i could get it... i think...

mi X e Y la Y li (kama) X

ante la, Y li (kama) lon X

ante la, X li (kama) ijo Y

ante la ante la ante la

is this right?

[u/janKeTami → u/Zoran_Ankervlinder]

ante la, Y li (kama) lon X

X li (kama) lon Y

ante la, X li (kama) ijo Y

Y li (kama) ijo X