Re: time distinctions

On Wed, 23 Aug 2000, H. S. Teoh wrote:

> But on this note... I wonder if it's actually possible to have a language
> *without* imperatives? I'm working on verbs in my conlang right now, and
> I'm thinking of possibly throwing out imperatives. Anybody here knows if
> any conlang or natlang that doesn't have an imperative, and how they form
> imperative statements without them?

From what I understand, Hawaiian has no imperatives.  I may be mistaken,
though...  Also, draqa has no imperatives.  It does have mandatory
sentence-introducing particles that indicate how true a statement is and
where the evidence comes from.  For all sentences where truth-value is
inapplicable, the particle is 'fo'...

sowa - sleep
fo sowa - (kinda literally: "if sleep")
          If (she) sleeps
          Were (she) to sleep
          (I) want to sleep
          (I) want [someone else] to sleep
          Sleep!


The meaning would be evident from context, and the reasoning behind it is
as such:  "If (X) sleeps, it would be good".  In other words, since there
is no explicit ",then..." portion to the "if..." statement, desirability
is assumed.  One could say 'fo sowa bai buna' ("if sleep
as-a-direct-result good"), but that would be superfluous.


a xapu,
.yasmin.