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

It ought to be noted that while the third person imperative here is viewed from a Finnish
perspective, other languages in other language families view these imperative functions
similarly, such as Irish, one of the few European, and to separate it from Finnish one of the
few Indo-European, languages with personal distinctions in all six persons as well as the
impersonal form. The examples are glossed in their subjunctive correspondences to illuminate
the difference; both are to be considered imperatives. Regard the following:
Irish:
(Go) fantar anseo; tá sé go fuar amuigh!
(Go) fantar anseo tá sé go fuar amuigh
GO wait/IMPRS/PRES/SBJV here is it GO cold outside
‘Let one wait here/let it be waited here; it is cold outside.’
Labhraíodh sí liom!
Labhraíodh sí liom
speak/3SG/PAST/SBJV she with/me
‘She is to speak with me/let her speak to me!’
The go particle preceding the adjective fuar is unrelated to the go preceding the present
subjunctive; in Irish, the go particle is used in front of certain predicatives (its usage is
irregular), and in subordinating conjunctions. It also denotes the prepositions “to”, “till” and
“until”. See Stenson (2008) for more information on the usage of go.
As is evident in these languages, the forms of the third person imperatives overlap with
other moods or speech acts, that is the past subjunctive (Irish; Ó Siadhail 1995; Stenson 2008;
Ó’Baoill in Rothstein and Thieroff (2010:273-91)) the optative (Finnish; Karlsson 2008 and
Turkish; Göksel and Kerslake 2005) or the jussive (Estonian; Erelt 2002; Erelt and Metslang
2004). These forms and subsequent paradigms, demonstrated below in their entirety, may be
considered imperatives on virtue of their directive character (however indirect they actually
are), and do not fit the definitional framework of the optative.
Illustrated below are the forms of the third person imperatives in Finnish, Estonian and
Irish. The sample verb here is “to walk”, its equivalent infinitive form being in Finnish
kävellä (verbal stem kävele-), kõndima (verbal stem kõndi-) in Estonian and siúil (verbal stem
siúl-) in Irish. Words in the tables are italicized where their forms overlap.
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