Re: time distinctions

> From: H. S. Teoh
>
> On Wed, Aug 23, 2000 at 06:03:21PM -0400, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> [snip]
> > I've got indicative and imperative.  Optative will probably some other c
> > construction.  You'd use the "probable" (an aspect?  though my wretched
> > Japanese grammar calls it a "mood") for the subjunctive.
>
> Subjunctive is a mood, not an aspect. As least in classical Greek ...
> don't take my word for it though. I'm not a "real" linguist :-)
>
> 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?
When you say "without imperatives", I suppose you mean without a syntactic
imperative form?  I would seem to me that every language would be capable of
a semantically imperative expression.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, amman iar, actually has three
imperative forms.

1) Literary imperative, used only in formal writing and liturgy:

der erdullel tardhil
You must come!

\f You must come!
\t der       erdullel              tardhil
\m der  -0   er-  tullo -e   -l    tar-        -dil
\g you  -[A] do-  come  -agt -actn imperative- -fut
\p 2per -nom agt- v     -val -vc   mood-       -tense
\x you       come                  must

2) Common imperative, the commonly used form:

erdullel
Come!

\f Come!
\t erdullel
\m er-  tullo -e   -l
\g do-  come  -agt -actn
\p agt- v     -val -vc
\x come

3) Abrupt, an insulting form used in a denigrating fashion:

erdul
Come!

\f Come!
\t erdul
\m er-  tullo
\g do-  come
\p agt- v
\x come

David

David E. Bell
The Gray Wizard
www.graywizard.net

"'Yes, I think I shall express the accusative case by a prefix!'

A memorable remark! Just consider the splendour of the words!  'I shall
express the accusative case.'  Magnificent!  Not 'it is expressed' nor even
the more shambling 'it is sometimes expressed', nor the grim 'you must learn
how it is expressed'.  What a pondering of alternatives within one's choice
before the final decision in favour of the daring and unusual prefix, so
personal, so attractive; the final solution of some element in a design that
had hitherto proved refractory.  Here were no base considerations of the
'practical', the easiest for the 'modern mind', or for the million – only a
question of taste, a satisfaction of a personal pleasure, a private sense of
fitness."

(from The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays - A Secret Vice,
by J.R.R. Tolkien [Houghton Mifflin Company 1984])