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Re: time distinctions

From:Ajin-Kwai <wpii@...>
Date:Thursday, August 24, 2000, 14:13
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.