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

Table 5.2 Sentence types in Irish
Declarative
Interrogative
Imperative
Optative
Positive
Glanann sí.
Glanann sí
clean/PRES/IND she
“She cleans”
An nglannan sí
An nglanann sí
Q clean/PRES/IND she
“Does she clean”
Glanadh sí!
Glanadh sí
clean/3SG/IMP she
“Let her clean!”
Go glana sí!
Go glana
sí
GO clean/3SG/PRES/SBJV she
“May she clean!”
Negative
Ni glannan sí.
Ni ghlannan sí
NEG clean/PRES/IND she
“She doesn’t clean”
Nach nglannan sí
Nach nglanann sí
Q/NEG clean/PRES/IND she
“Doesn’t she clean”
Ná glanadh sí!
Ná glanadh sí
NEG/IMP clean/3SG/IMP she
“Don’t let her clean!”
Nár glana sí!
Nár glana sí
NEG/SBJV clean/3SG/PRES/SBJV she
“May she not clean!”
The negation pattern from one speech act to another is as follows: the declarative uses the
independent negative article ni in all tenses as well as in the conditional, the interrogative the
dependent negative article nach (which, as an aside, is also used to negate subordinating
conjunctions), again in all tenses, while the imperative uses the ná negation and the optative
the negation nár. Additionally, it is noteworthy that the past subjunctive, the basis for the
imperative, does not share any negations with the present subjunctive, the basis for the
optative, despite the superficial difference being only that of temporal distinction.
So the difference between Finnish and Irish is that while the optative in Irish is
subsumed under the present subjunctive, which fills other functions in addition to expressing
optativity, it is more independent (and functionally more specialized) in Finnish.
Not all languages have an overlap between the optative and the imperative. One
language in which this overlap does not occur is Albanian, which, while only presenting the
second person forms in the imperative, possesses a full paradigm for optatives in both the
present and perfect:
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