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Re: THEORY: third-person imperatives

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Tuesday, April 27, 1999, 19:48
"Raymond A. Brown" wrote:
> Exactly - and not just Lutheran theology.
Well, I didn't mean to imply that that was *solely* Lutheran, only that I only know about in Lutheranism.
> I guess, indeed, this must be common to all 'mainstream' > Christian theology.
Probly.
> So, to get back to the start of this thread: there is IMHO a need for a > language to be able to express such forms and, indeed, several conlange=
rs
> have told us how their langs do that. We can't, I think, simply scrap =
them
> and rephrase with 2nd person imperatives.
Right. In Waty=E1=EDsa, I use the "imperative/jussive" prefix for all th= ree persons (at least in theory - I can't see much use in the first person singular), there's no difference between a blessing and a command, nor any gramaticalized "polite" imperative. The Suttyaisai (I've decided to use the native word, rather than the translation for the people) are usually pretty direct and egalitarian, "formal/informal" commands. To soften the command, making it a request, I'm not sure exactly what would be done, but I think that a verb meaning something like "I'd like for you to" or "It would be good if you", or perhaps a pseudo-question, "will you ...?" --=20 "It's bad manners to talk about ropes in the house of a man whose father was hanged." - Irish proverb http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/X-Files http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/Books.html ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-name: NikTailor