Time

Rikchik's handling of time is primarily based on two morphemes: Sequence, for putting events in order, and Span, for describing lengths of time.

Birth, then happiness, then death.

(This is a traditional rikchik blessing, indicating a happy life.)

Sequence

Sequence

Rikchik uses the Sequence morpheme to discuss sequences of events. The events collected by the Sequence word as Patients happen in the order they appear in the sentence.

To state that two events happen simultaneously, the two event clauses are collected by Gather (meaning "and" in this case) and that word is a Patient of the Sequence.

The time between events can be specified by collecting a length of time with the Quality relation between collecting the events.

Opening statements such as "once upon a time" are usually collected with the Source relation, to emphasize that they are openings. Likewise, closing statements such as "they all lived happily after" take the Destination relation.

I worked.	I will sleep.	Work before sleep.

Now, After

The Idea (I) aspect of the Me morpheme indicates "now" and is used when specifying the relative position in time of an event. (This is as close as Rikchik gets to having tenses.)

The After morpheme can also be used to put two events in order, as a shortcut or when a sequence will be unclear.

Time spans

Span

Rikchik uses the Span morpheme to talk about lengths of time. Spans can be specified based on starting time and/or ending time, as well as by events ("while I was working") or by measurement ("the time measured by this clock"). See the Span dictionary entry for details.

Telling time

The various rikchik time measurements are compounds of Span. Telling time is one of the situations in which the name element in a compound word will collect a non-name word. In this case, the word "Span" will collect multiple names, to indicate the various time units, and those names will in turn collect numbers or other indicators.

5 War 46, 16-Block 21

For instance, to say the date "the 21st day of the 16th block of the 46th year in the cycle of War in the 5th great-cycle", the "Span" morpheme collects Tree (to make Year), Number (to make Block), and Sun (to make Day). Sun in turn collects morphemes meaning "21", and Block collects "16". Tree collects "46" to indicate the year, as well as "5th fight" indicating the cycle and great-cycle.

A page showing the current date and time in Rikchik units is available.