9.14. Sticky modals

The following cmavo is discussed in this section:

stickiness flag

Like tenses, modals can be made persistent from the bridi in which they appear to all following bridi. The effect of this “stickiness” is to make the modal, along with its following sumti, act as if it appeared in every successive bridi. Stickiness is put into effect by following the modal (but not any following sumti) with the cmavo ki of selma'o KI. For example,

Example 9.88.

mi	tavla	bau	la	.lojban.	bai
I	speak	in-language	that-named	Lojban	compelled-by

ki	tu'a	la	.frank.
	some-property-of	that-named	Frank.

.ibabo	mi	tavla	bau	la	.gliban.
Afterward,	I	speak	in-language	that-named	English.

means the same as:

Example 9.89.

mi	tavla	bau	la	.lojban.	bai
I	speak	in-language	that-named	Lojban	compelled-by

tu'a	la	.frank.
some-property-of	that-named	Frank.

.ibabo	mi	tavla	bau	la	.gliban.	bai
Afterward,	I	speak	in-language	that-named	English	compelled-by

tu'a	la	.frank.
some-property-of	that-named	Frank.

In Example 9.88, bai is made sticky, and so Frank's compelling is made applicable to every following bridi. bau is not sticky, and so the language may vary from bridi to bridi, and if not specified in a particular bridi, no assumption can safely be made about its value.

To cancel stickiness, use the form BAI ki ku, which stops any modal value for the specified BAI from being passed to the next bridi. To cancel stickiness for all modals simultaneously, and also for any sticky tenses that exist (ki is used for both modals and tenses), use ki by itself, either before the selbri or (in the form ki ku) anywhere in the bridi:

Example 9.90.

tavla

I speak (no implication about language or compulsion).

Note: Modals made with fi'o-plus-selbri cannot be made sticky. This is an unfortunate, but unavoidable, restriction.