Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Various Commands (was Uralic Negative Verbs)

From:John Vertical <johnvertical@...>
Date:Thursday, March 30, 2006, 8:01
> >Joe <joe@...> wrote: > > > >Hmm. "Let me die now [because I'm so happy]" > > die-1SG.IMP now > > >Of course, in English, that's gramatically a 2nd person > >imperative+infinitive construction, but semantically, I would say, > >is a first person imperative.
I disagree... semantically, it seems more like a plea. I don't think it's even possible to actually order oneself. Alternately, it's trivial - everything a person does is "ordered" by hirself... but these are mental orders. I mean, a language can sure allow for a first person imperative construction, but it can be only used to announce an already existing urge; never to inform oneself of it. This is what makes true 1SG imperativs impossible.
>According to the Wikipedia entry, cohortative mood is only used in >the first person, jussive in the second and third, and imperative in >the third. Some languages have all three, some only one. I would >imagine that if there's only one, it is the imperative, some >periphrastic expression being used for the others.
>Charlie
So, what languages contrast all three? And where do you get imperativ being limited to 3p?!? 2p I might expect, but the Wikipedia article(s) mentions neither. John Vertical

Reply

Remi Villatel <maxilys@...>