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The Complete Lojban Language where the tag pu forces the sentence to refer to a time in the past. Similarly,


 * Example 2.91

necessarily refers to the present, because of the tag ca. Tags used in this way always appear at the very beginning of the selbri, just after the cu, and they may make a cu unnecessary, since tags cannot be absorbed into tanru. Such tags serve as an equivalent to English tenses and adverbs. In Lojban, tense information is completely optional. If unspecified, the appropriate tense is picked up from context.

Lojban also extends the notion of “tense” to refer not only to time but to space. The following example uses the tag vu to specify that the event it describes happens far away from the speaker:


 * Example 2.92

In addition, tense tags (either for time or space) can be prefixed to the selbri of a description, producing a tensed sumti:


 * Example 2.93

(Since Lojban tense is optional, we don't know when he or she talks.)

Tensed sumti with space tags correspond roughly to the English use of “this” or “that” as adjectives, as in the following example, which uses the tag vi meaning “nearby”:


 * Example 2.94
 * This runner talks.

Do not confuse the use of vi in Example 2.94 (p. 30) with the cmavo ti, which also means “this”, but in the sense of “this thing”.

Furthermore, a tense tag can appear both on the selbri and within a description, as in the following example (where ba is the tag for future time):


 * Example 2.95
 * The talker who is here will go.
 * This talker will go.

2.18 Lojban grammatical terms
Here is a review of the Lojban grammatical terms used in this chapter, plus some others used throughout this book. Only terms that are themselves Lojban words are included: there are of course many expressions like “indicator” in Chapter 16 (p. 375) that are not explained here. See the Index for further help with these.