The following cmavo is discussed in this section:
mo'i |
MOhI |
movement flag |
All the information carried by the tense constructs so far presented has been presumed to be static: the bridi is occurring somewhere or other in space and time, more or less remote from the speaker. Suppose the truth of the bridi itself depends on the result of a movement, or represents an action being done while the speaker is moving? This too can be represented by the tense system, using the cmavo mo'i (of selma'o MOhI) plus a spatial direction and optional distance; the direction now refers to a direction of motion rather than a static direction from the speaker.
le | verba | mo'i | ri'u | cadzu | le | bisli |
The | child | [movement] | [right] | walks-on | the | ice. |
The child walks toward my right on the ice. |
This is quite different from:
le | verba | ri'u | cadzu | le | bisli |
The | child | [right] | walks-on | the | ice. |
To the right of me, the child walks on the ice. |
In either case, however, the reference frame for defining “right” and “left” is the speaker's, not the child's. This can be changed thus:
le | verba | mo'i | ri'u | cadzu | le | bisli |
The | child | [movement] | [right] | walks-on | the | ice |
ma'i | vo'a |
in-reference-frame | the-x1-place. |
The child walks toward her right on the ice. |
Example 10.37 is analogous to Example 10.35. The cmavo ma'i belongs to selma'o BAI (explained in Section 9.6), and allows specifying a reference frame.
Both a regular and a mo'i-flagged spatial tense can be combined, with the mo'i construct coming last:
le | verba | zu'avu | mo'i | ri'uvi | cadzu | le | bisli |
The | child | [left-long] | [movement] | [right-short] | walks-on | the | ice. |
Far to the left of me, the child walks a short distance toward my right on the ice. |
It is not grammatical to use multiple directions like zu'a ca'u after mo'i, but complex movements can be expressed in a separate bridi.
Here is an example of a movement tense on a bridi not inherently involving movement:
mi | mo'i | ca'uvu | citka | le | mi | sanmi |
I | [movement] | [front-long] | eat | the | associated-with-me | meal. |
While moving a long way forward, I eat my meal. |
(Perhaps I am eating in an airplane.)
There is no parallel facility in Lojban at present for expressing movement in time – time travel – but one could be added easily if it ever becomes useful.