The function of non-canonical imperatives in the languages of Europe

Now, what I found were tendencies in this particular geographic setting that seemed
unclear, and after having consulted a number of volumes on the subject of the imperative and
the modality relative to it, primarily Aikhenvald (2010) and Palmer (2001), both to which I
make references in this paper, I was ready to start analyzing the data, which I will account for
henceforth.
3. Imperative: Mood or sentence type
The first issue that I will address is that of the nature of imperatives and whether they are
modal or sentential, a definition that is of importance for the mapping of functions in the noncanonical
imperatives, i.e. the first and third person forms. If verbs conjugated in other
moods, tenses and aspects are as indirect as those verbs used in different sentence types, not
to mention verbs that incorporate both verbal-grammatical and sentence-type features, what
exactly then is the imperative
Most grammars treat imperatives as a mood not unlike the indicative, subjunctive or
conditional, and yet it would seem that, under the magnifying glass, imperatives are nothing
like these other moods. As Aikhenvald (2010) puts it: “Imperatives are a law unto
themselves”, and I am compelled to concur this to be true, since there are so many parts of
this linguistic phenomenon that fails to adhere to the norms that are so effortlessly imposed on
other moods.
This is to consider a definition dilemma: Imperatives could be conceived as moods
since they cannot be conditional or subjunctive or any other mood (although, as we’ll see,
subjunctives can indeed be posed as imperatives, though not as part of any modal distinction).
But conversely, neither declaratives nor interrogatives, nor any other sentence type for that
matter, can be imperative (but may function as such in indirect speech). Imperative sentences
have their own syntax, intonation contour and system for negation which by analogy to the
situation in declaratives or interrogatives mean that they ought to constitute a sentence type in
their own right.
An issue that arises in defining imperatives as a type of sentence rather than a mood, as
is done by Aikhenvald (2010), Thieroff (Rothstein and Thieroff, 2010) and Abraham (in
Abraham and Leiss (2009:251-302)) is the grammatical applicability of imperatives. Unlike
declaratives and interrogatives, imperatives do not allow for modal distinction, and are very
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