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

Finally, reported evidentiality is the only such specification attested in imperatives,
connected to imperatives-by-proxy, while other clause types may discriminate between
numerous options.
One point of particular interest is that of negation, which in some languages is
expressed differently in the imperative than in other clause types (this is not always the case;
I’ll explain why shortly) and the negative imperative, or prohibitive, can be radically different
from positive imperatives, while polarity in the declarative tends to work on a more
“does/does not” basis without tampering with the verbal form to any greater extent. This point
can be illustrated in French, using the verb donner, “to give”:
Table 3.1: the differences between declarative and imperative polarity in French
Positive
Declarative Tu me le donneras.
Tu me le donneras
you 1SG/ACC it give/2SG/FUT
“You will give it to me”
Imperative Donne-le-moi !
Donne-le-moi
give/2SG/IMP-it-1SG/DIS
“Give it to me!”
Negative
Tu (ne) me le donneras pas.
Tu (ne) me le donneras pas
you NEG 1SG/ACC it give/2SG/FUT NEG
“You will not give it to me”
Ne me le donne pas !
Ne me le donne pas
NEG 1SG/ACC it give/2SG/IMP NEG
“Don’t give it to me!”
As we can see in the imperative, the word order is different depending on the sentence
polarity; in the positive, we see a VO (specifically, verb-accusative-dative) order whereas in
the negative this word order is instead OV (dative-accusative-verb to be exact). Also, the
prohibitive warrants a change from the disjunctive moi to the accusative-dative me, mirroring
the situation in the declarative.
Another example to highlight the variance in negation between imperatives and nonimperatives
can be made in Finnish, here with the verb mennä, “to go”:
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