Re: Fiat Lux

"let us dance": sure its rather "suggestive" than imperative.
phrases i remind are:
"how about a dance?" or "do you like to dance?" or "may we dance?" or "lets dance!".
you see that the last expression is not a question and therefore
psychologically attached to more self esteem.
actually the person is offering something.
a question is a less strong offer, since it emphases
the acknowledgement instead of the offer/suggestion itself.
i dare to state: a suggestion expressed as question is
averagely not that succesful than a suggestion expressed as statement.
alas, "let's" is viewed as low-quality mundane expression, so the best way to keep
formal english without questioning is something like "i offer you to dance with me"
even if it may sound unusual.
regards,
c.s.

>>> Not quite, _ua:pula:re_ (active) means: 'to be beaten, to be flogged'; and
>>> there may be one or two others.
>>
>>And <irruma:re>. In the fashion of older Latin-English dictionaries, I won't
>>actually define it here. :)
JM> I was going to point that out (though even newer Latin dictionaries seem to
JM> prefer not to define this word), as well as venere "to be sold." It's
JM> interesting that fieri is usually given as the perfect of facere, and venere
JM> of vendere, but I've never seen vapulare cited as the actual passive of
JM> verberare nor irrumare as the passive of fellare... these seem to be
JM> considered separate verbs, rather than suppletive passives. For irrumare
JM> there are definite idiological reasons thought ;)
JM>  Sorry if my previous post was a bit redundant with other things that
JM> have now been said in this thread, as I tried to post it yesterday but it
JM> bounced.

JM>  Oh, and as for the other half of this thread: I think what Muke was
JM> trying to say is that the let in "let there be light" is parallel to the let
JM> in "let us dance," i.e. it's a helping verb for an optative used as a
JM> subjunctive, rather than a request for permission or some such.

JM> -JDM


"rurmlor entflöt, fluppseveri trimel akre wopel larf."
- alte redensart

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