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

Table 5.3 The imperative and optative paradigms of the verb çoj, “to send” in Albanian
Imperative Singular Plural
2P ço
çoni
Analytic forms
of the optative
Synthetic forms
of the optative
Present active
Present mediopassive
Singular Plural Singular Plural
1P çofsha çofshim u çofsha u çofshim
2P çofsh çofshi u çofsh u çofshi
3P çoftë çofshin u çoftë u çofshin
Present perfect active Present perfect mediopassive
Singular Plural Singular Plural
1P paça çuar paçim çuar qofsha çuar qofshim çuar
2P paç çuar paçi çuar qofsh çuar qofshi çuar
3P pastë çuar paçin çuar qoftë çuar qofshin çuar
5.1 Third person imperatives
One might argue whether third person imperatives are imperatives at all. There are several
points to take into consideration, which I will attempt to elucidate.
Semantically, to ascribe their function as optative would not be incorrect, since the
speaker does not directly order the subject so much as expresses a wish that something is to be
done by someone else (albeit sometimes with the intention that the listener is to pass that
command on to the subject of the third person imperative in question; a chain of command
Aikhenvald (2010) calls imperative-by-proxy). But this only rules out the possibility that
these forms are canonical, and we already know that they aren’t.
However, this only accounts for one function, and there are other functions in the third
person forms that are less optative, at least if seen from a functional viewpoint. One such
thing is the usage of the third person imperative to nullify a sanction imposed on the
subject(s), i.e. to let someone do something that they previously were not allowed to do:
Menkööt kauppaan, jos he haluavat!
Menkööt kauppaan jos he haluavat
go/3PL/IMP store/ILL if they want/3PL
“Let them go to the store if they want to!”
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