PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS AN OLD VERSION. The current version is linked from The Complete Lojban Language.
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Explicit magnitudes

24. Tense questions: ``cu'e''

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: 

24.1)    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?

24.2)    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. 

24.3)    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 24.3 might be: 
24.4)    va
    [medium space].
    Some ways from here.

24.5) puzu
    [past] [long time].
    A long time ago.

24.6) vi le lunra
    [short space] The moon.
    On the moon.

24.7) pu'o
    [inchoative]
    He hasn't yet done so.
or even the modal reply (from selma'o BAI; see Chapter 9): 
24.8)    bai la djan.
    Under John's compulsion.
The only way to combine ``cu'e'' with other tense cmavo is through logical connection, which makes a question that pre-specifies some information: 

24.9)    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:

24.10)  la .artr. pu je'i ba nolraitru
    Arthur [past] [which?] [future] is-a-king
    Was Arthur a king or will he be?

Answers to Example 24.10 would be logical connectives such as ``je'', meaning ``both'', ``naje'' meaning ``the latter'', or ``jenai'' meaning ``the former''.

Previous
Tenses versus modals 		Imaginary Journeys: The Lojban Space/Time Tense System
The Lojban Reference Grammar 		Next
Explicit magnitudes