Chapter 6. Questions & Answers#

Three Kinds of Questions#

Lojban has a dedicated particle for each type of question you might want to ask:

Each works by placing a question particle exactly where the answer would go.

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xu: Yes/No Questions#

xu is placed before any bridi to ask "Is this true?":

xu do klama le zarci Are you going to the store?

xu la .teris. cu tirxu Is Terry a tiger?

xu can also attach to a specific word to ask about just that part:

do xu klama le zarci Is it you that's going to the store? (questioning the "you" part)

do klama xu le zarci Is it the store that you're going to?

Answering xu questions:

The simplest affirmative answer is go'i (repeat the previous bridi as true) or simply je'u (indeed/truly):

xu do klama le zarci .i go'i Are you going to the store? — Yes [I am].

xu do klama le zarci .i je'u — Indeed.

The simplest negative is na go'i or na'i:

xu do klama le zarci .i na go'i — No [I'm not].

You can also give a corrective answer by restating the bridi with the correction:

xu do klama le zarci Are you going to the store?

mi klama le zdani [No,] I'm going home. (corrects both agent and destination)

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ma: Sumti Questions (Who/What/Where/When/Why)#

ma stands as a placeholder in any sumti slot and asks "what fills this slot?":

ma klama le zarci Who goes to the store? (ma in x₁ slot)

do klama ma Where are you going? (ma in x₂ destination slot)

do tavla mi fo ma What language are you speaking to me in? (ma in x₄ language slot)

do klama le zarci fi ma Where are you coming from? (ma in x₃ origin slot, tagged with fi)

Answers to ma questions are just the sumti that fills the slot:

do klama ma .i le zarci Where are you going? — The store.

ma klama .i la .teris. Who's going? — Terry.

Multiple ma in one sentence asks multiple questions at once:

ma tavla ma fo ma Who talks to whom in what language?

The listener must supply all three values in their answer.

Since ma can fill any sumti role, it serves for English's Who/What/Where/When/Why:

• Who → ma in x₁ of a person-expecting selbri
• What → ma in an object slot
• Where → ma in a location slot (or with a spatial tense)
• When → ma in a time slot (or with a temporal tense)
• Why → ma in a cause slot (ri'a + ma, or mu'i ma etc. — covered in Chapter 10)

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mo: Selbri Questions (What Relation?)#

mo stands where a selbri would be and asks "what relationship holds here?":

do mo What are you doing? / What relation holds with you in x₁?

ti mo What is this?

mo is quite open-ended — the listener must figure out which aspect of the relation is being asked about from context:

do mo .i mi tavla What are you doing? — I'm talking.

le gerku mo .i le gerku cu blabi What is the dog? — The dog is white.

When you need a more specific selbri question, use a tanru with mo in the tertau slot:

do klama ma mo You go to what kind of [place]? (mo asking about the type of destination)

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xo: Number Questions#

xo goes where a number would be and asks "how many?":

do ponse xo le cutci How many shoes do you own?

xo prenu cu klama How many people are going?

Answers give just the number:

do ponse xo le cutci .i mu How many shoes do you own? — Five.

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Indirect Questions#

Questions can be embedded inside a bridi as subordinate clauses. In Lojban, this uses the abstractor du'u (proposition) with kau marking the questioned element:

mi djuno lo du'u ma kau klama I know who is going. (indirect question: "who goes")

mi na djuno lo du'u xu kau do klama I don't know whether you are going.

mi djuno lo du'u do klama ma kau I know where you are going.

kau

marks the questioned element in an indirect question (turns a direct question word into an indirect one)

Indirect questions are covered in detail in Chapter 12 alongside other abstractions.

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fi'a: Place-Structure Questions#

From Chapter 4, recall fi'a asks which slot a sumti occupies:

fi'a do dunda le rozgu In what role are you involved in giving the rose?

Answered with: fa (you're the giver), fe (the gift), or fi (the recipient).

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Questions About Tense#

Tense particles have question-counterparts:

do klama le zarci cu'au ma When are you going to the store? (cu'au + ma questions tense)

More naturally, a tense question can be formed by using ma in a tense position:

do pu ma klama — but this isn't standard. The idiomatic form is to use the answer-question pair:

do ca ma klama le zarci When are you going to the store?

Temporal tense questions are covered more fully in Chapter 9.

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Answering Strategies#

Lojban answers can be:

A single sumti (for ma questions):

do klama ma .i le zdani Where are you going? — Home.

A selbri (for mo questions):

do mo .i mi citka What are you doing? — Eating.

go'i (repeat the bridi = yes):

xu do nelci lo mlatu .i go'i Do you like cats? — Yes.

na go'i (negate the bridi = no):

xu do nelci lo mlatu .i na go'i — No.

A corrected bridi:

xu do nelci lo mlatu .i mi nelci lo gerku Do you like cats? — No, I like dogs.

je'u (indeed, truly — emphatic yes):

je'u Indeed / Absolutely.

je'u nai (not indeed — emphatic no):

je'u nai Not at all / Certainly not.

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A Sample Dialogue#

coi .alis. .i do mo Hello, Alice. How are you? / What's up?

coi .djan. .i mi klama le zarci .i xu do klama Hi, John. I'm going to the store. Are you going too?

na go'i .i mi citka ca ti No. I'm eating right now.

do citka ma What are you eating?

lo cirla Cheese.

pluka .i xu do ponse xo le cirla Nice. How much cheese do you have?

mi ponse su'o ci le cirla .i mi na djuno lo du'u xo kau I have at least three pieces of cheese. I don't know exactly how many.

cu'e: Asking About Tense or Modal#

cu'e (selma'o CUhE) is the question word for tense and modal positions — it asks "what tense or circumstance applies here?":

do cu'e klama le zarci When / under what conditions do you go to the store?

The expected answer is a tense cmavo or modal tag:

mi ba klama (future) · mi pu klama (past) · mi ca klama (present) mi mu'i le nu mi djica klama (because I want to)

cu'e can replace any tense element in any position:

le verba cu cu'e sipna When is the child sleeping?

do cu'e litru How/when/why do you travel? — very open question about the circumstances of travel

When the question targets a modal specifically, the answer should be a BAI cmavo or fi'o phrase. When it targets a tense, the answer is a tense particle (pu, ca, ba, vi, va, vu, etc.).

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ji'a: "Also" in Answers to Connective Questions#

When answering a connective question (ji — "which one?"), the responder can use ji'a to mean "and also the other option":

do nelci lo mlatu ji lo gerku Do you like cats or dogs?

Answers:

lo mlatu — cats (only) lo gerku — dogs (only) lo mlatu .e lo gerku — both ji'a — and-also: the other one too (adds to a previous answer or implies both)

ji'a signals "in addition to what was already said/implied." It is a discursive that means "also, additionally":

mi klama le zarci .i ji'a mi klama le ckule I'm going to the store. I'm also going to the school.

While ji'a is not exclusively a question-answer word, it most naturally appears in contexts where an additional affirmative is being offered.

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mo in Embedded Bridi#

mo as a content question can appear inside du'u abstractions to ask about an embedded relationship:

mi djuno lo du'u do mo I know what you are / what relation holds for you.

xu do djuno lo du'u le gerku cu mo Do you know what the dog is?

The inner mo asks about the entire predicate relationship within the subordinate clause. The answer fills the embedded selbri position:

mi djuno lo du'u le gerku cu pendo I know that the dog is friendly. (pendo answers the embedded mo)

This pattern occurs with many knowledge and communication verbs that take du'u complements: djuno (know), cusku (say), jinvi (believe), smadi (guess).

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Summary#

• xu before a bridi → yes/no question; answered with go'i / na go'i / corrected bridi
• ma in a sumti slot → who/what/where question; answered with the appropriate sumti
• mo in the selbri slot → what-relation question; answered with a selbri
• xo in a number slot → how-many question; answered with a number
• kau marks the questioned element in indirect (embedded) questions
• fi'a asks which place a sumti occupies (answered with a FA particle)
• je'u = emphatic yes; je'u nai = emphatic no
• Whole-grammar Q&A roadmap (all question types, fa'u questions, legal non-bridi answers): Chapter 17