10.24. 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:

Example 10.179.

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?

Example 10.180.

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.

Example 10.181.

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:

Example 10.182.

[medium-space].

Some ways from here.

Example 10.183.

puzu

[past]-[long-time].

A long time ago.

Example 10.184.

vi	le	lunra
[short-space]	The	moon.

On the moon.

Example 10.185.

pu'o

[prospective]

He hasn't yet done so.

or even the modal reply (from selma'o BAI; see Section 9.6):

Example 10.186.

seka'a	le	briju
With-destination	the	office.

The only way to combine cu'e with other tense cmavo is through logical connection, which makes a question that pre-specifies some information:

Example 10.187.

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:

Example 10.188.

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”.