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

Estonian:
Ta/nad kõndigu minu kaubanduskeskusesse!
Ta / nad kõndigu minu kaubanduskeskusesse
he/she / they walk/PRES/JUSS 1SG/GEN shopping mall
“May he/she/they walk into my shopping mall!”
(Ta/nad) kõndigu minu kaubanduskeskusesse!
(Ta / nad) kõndigu minu kaubanduskeskusesse
he/she / they walk/3SG/IMP 1SG/GEN shopping mall
”Let him/her/them walk into my shopping mall!”
The first example is intentionally pre-interpreted as the jussive and the second example as the
imperative. The difference in the functional analysis is evident; in the first example, the
jussive does not bear a personal marker. This, as we know from table 5.5 is due to the fact that
it does not conjugate after person, meaning that the subject must consequentially be explicitly
mentioned. The only vagueness here is whether the subject ta is male or female (provided the
subject is a single person).
The second example has its subject left out, and the imperative is marked in the third
person, since unlike with the jussive paradigm, imperatives in Estonian vary formally
depending on person (this variation is generally true in all languages, at least in Europe).
However, here exists not only vagueness of gender, but also an ambiguity of person; does the
imperative concern a male or female or even a number of people Mentioning the subject here
might be necessary after all. The only difference, it seems, between the third person forms in
the jussive and the corresponding forms in the imperative is how much mention the subject
needs, which, if one wants to avoid ambiguity, may very well be of importance.
5.2 Passive imperatives
There exists in certain languages an imperative form not only for the third person singular and
plural, but for the passive imperative as well, typically inheriting their forms from the same
place. In Finnish, the passive particle -(t)tA- is affixed to the verbal stem followed by the third
person singular active optative ending -kOOn to form the passive imperative. So, for example,
we end up with the following, using the word kysyä, “to ask”, as an example:
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