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” .