The following cmavo is discussed in this section:
cu'e |
CUhE |
tense question |
There are two main ways to ask questions about tense. The main English tense question words are “When?” and “Where?”. These may be paraphrased respectively as “At what time?” and “At what place?” In these forms, their Lojban equivalents simply involve a tense plus ma, the Lojban sumti question:
do | klama | le | zdani | ca | ma |
You | go-to | the | house | [present] | [what-sumti?]. |
You | go-to | the | house | at | what-time? |
When do you go to the house? |
le | verba | vi | ma | pu | cadzu | le | bisli |
The | child | [short-space] | [what-sumti?] | [past] | walks-on | the | ice. |
The | child | at/near | what-place | walked-on | the | ice? |
Where did the child walk on the ice? |
There is also a non-specific tense and modal question, cu'e, belonging to selma'o CUhE. This can be used wherever a tense or modal construct can be used.
le | nanmu | cu'e | batci | le | gerku |
The | man | [what-tense?] | bites | the | dog. |
When/Where/How does the man bite the dog? |
Possible answers to Example 10.181 might be:
or even the modal reply (from selma'o BAI; see Section 9.6):
The only way to combine cu'e with other tense cmavo is through logical connection, which makes a question that pre-specifies some information:
do | puzi | je | cu'e | sombo | le | gurni |
You | [past-short] | and | [when?] | sow | the | grain? |
You sowed the grain a little while ago; when else do you sow it? |
Additionally, the logical connective itself can be replaced by a question word:
la | .artr. | pu | je'i | ba | nolraitru |
That-named | Arthur | [past] | [which?] | [future] | is-a-king |
Was Arthur a king or will he be? |
Answers to Example 10.188 would be logical connectives such as je, meaning “both”, naje meaning “the latter”, or jenai meaning “the former”.