Ye Merrye Conlangre: Questionnaire on Imperatives

Morphology

1. What verb forms are traditionally included in the imperative paradigm of your language? Do you agree with this traditional classification? If not, what forms, in your opinion, should be excluded from the traditional imperative paradigm, and how should they be classified instead? What forms should be added to the paradigm?
2. What grammatical categories in your language are specific for the imperative only (e.g. in Mongolian, Nivkh, Lezgi, and Japanese, the category of person is distinguished only in the imperative but not in the indicative)?
3. What grammatical categories of your language acquire specific forms or meaning when used in the imperative (e.g. in Russian, imperative person and number markers differ from those in the indicative, cf. Russian id'osh `[you] go' vs. idi `go!'; Russian verb forms of the type id'om have different interpretations depending on whether they are used in the imperative or in the indicative: in the first case, they denote joint action by the speaker and a single listener (dualis), i.e. `let's go', while in the second, the agent of the prescribed action can include the speaker, a single or plural listener(s) and/or outside person(s) that do not participate in the speech act (pluralis))?
4. Do any verb markers of your language vary in meaning depending on whether they are used in imperative or non-imperative sentences (e.g. in Tagalog, the marker that is labeled "sociative" in non-imperative sentences, changes its meaning to that of a marker of politeness when used in imperative sentences)?
5. What analytic imperative verb forms are attested in your language, if any? What auxiliary verbs (causative verbs, modal verbs, verbs of motion or giving) or particles derived from them are used in analytic imperatives?
6. What imperative forms in your language, if any, are homonymous with other, non-imperative forms (e.g., indicative future or present, verb forms of other moods, etc.)?
7. What person/number meanings, if any, are expressed in the imperative paradigm of your language?
8. Normally, imperative person/number paradigms differ from those attested in the indicative and other moods by their composition. For example, the Russian imperative paradigm, in contrast to the indicative, has specific dual forms (1^st+2^nd SG and 1^st+2^nd PL), cf. Russian: Jedem! or Jedemte! `Let's go (I and you SG/PL)'. Does your language have the same situation, or are there any other person/number forms that are found in the imperative but not in the indicative paradigm, or vice versa?
9. Do corresponding imperative, indicative (or other mood) person/number markers in your language coincide, or differ from each other?
10. Is there any variability of imperative verb forms in your language (cf. Russian: Budem chitat'! / Davaj chitat'! / Davaj budem chitat'! `Let us read'), and what are the rules for the distribution of the different variants?
11. The indicative mood in various languages distinguishes aspect, tense, voice, gender, class, and other categories, whose forms are often used in the imperative as well (cf. Russian: poj! `sing! (imperfective)' vs. spoj `sing! (perfective)'; Latin: vince! `win! (active voice)' vs. vincere! `Let you be vanquished! (passive voice)', etc). Can all indicative categories and forms, attested in your language, be used in the imperative? Which of them cannot be used in the imperative, if any? What is the explanation for the absence of some of the indicative categories/forms from the imperative paradigm?
12. Do imperative verb forms in your language differ in any way (by composition stress) from those of other categories? Are there any grammatical limitations on imperative verb formation?
13. What is the comparative frequence of various imperative verb forms? And of imperative and non-imperative verb forms used in imperative sentences?
14. Does your language have any other mood forms (as, for example Eskimo optatives), whose basic or sole function is that of conveying imperative meanings? How do these correlate with imperative verb forms or, in other words, what are the rules for their distribution and occurrence?
15. What verb forms and negation markers are used in the prohibitive sentences of your langauge?
16. What (and how many) verb forms are distinguished in the prohibitive paradigm of your language? Do the imperative and prohibitive paradigms of your language differ in their composition? What verb forms, if any, are missing (or, on the contrary, additionally appear) in the prohibitive paradigm?
17. What are the specific preventive verb forms used in your language, if any (cf. Russian: Ne poskol'znis'! `Beware not to slip!' or Aleut: sisa-aGana-Xt! `Beware not to lose your way!')? Do they have specialized markers (as in Aleut), or do they use other verb category markers (e.g. perfective markers in Russian)?
18. What are the specific formal features of address in your language? Is there a special vocative case used in address formulas? Are there any other special address markers? Are there any similarities in morphophonological structure between imperative and address forms in your language?

Syntax

1. What is the syntactic structure of imperative sentences in your language? What are their compulsory and optional elements? Is there any word order, or prosody patters specific for imperative sentences? Do various imperative verb forms differ in syntactic valence from each other and from indicative or other mood forms?
2. Does your language have special adverbal particles (as the Russian particle -- ka, cf. Russian: Zamolchi-ka! `Come on, shut up!') or other words that are used only in imperative sentences or acquire a special meaning when used in imperative sentences (as the Russian particle zhe, cf. Russian: Zamolchi zhe `Shut up, will you')? What are the functions of these particles? Do they in any way influence the actant/circonstant structure of the sentence, its word order, or prosodic pattern?
3. In principle, the use of pronominal subjects in imperative sentences can be compulsory, optional, or prohibited. Which of these situations is characteristic for your language? If your language optionally uses imperative sentences with and without 2^nd person pronominal subjects (cf. Russian: Podozhdi ty! `[You] wait!' vs. Mozhno ja teb'a podozhdu? -- Podozhdi! "May I wait for you?" "Wait (=Do)!", what is their selection based on?
4. If an imperative sentence comprises an agent, it can be either the subject (cf. Russian: Ty sxodi k masteru! `You go see a specialist!') or an address (cf. Russian: Ej ty, sxodi k masteru `Hey, you, go see a specialist!'). If both of the above uses are found in your language, how are they distinguished?
5. Are there verbless imperative sentences in your language (e.g. Water!; or John, to the Director! Now!)? Can one describe these sentences (or some of them) as elliptic utterances with an omitted imperative verb form?
6. Does your language have multi-predicative imperative sentences structured as imperative verb sequences (e.g. Eat and drink!)? If not, what constructions can be described as their functional synonyms?

Semantics and Pragmatics

1. Grammars of many languages note that imperative verbs can convey various meanings (e.g. command, demand, request, advice, permission, etc). Are these interpretations applicable to imperative verbs in your language? What criteria are used to distinguish between different interpretations? Do various imperative and non-imperative verb forms found in imperative sentences have the same array of interpretations?
2. Are there "emphatic" imperatives in your language?
3. Does your language rank imperative verb forms by their degree of politeness?
4. Are there imperative verb forms relfecting socially marked oppositions?
5. Are there any lexical or semantic restrictions on the use of imperative, prohibitive, or preventive verb forms in your language? Are these restrictions the same for imperative, prohibitive, and preventive verbs?
6. Does your language have non-imperative verb forms (as, for instance, the Russian infinitive) that can be used in imperative sentences (cf. Russian: Svistat' vsex naverx! `Pipe [=to pipe] all hands on deck!')? What imperative verb forms can they replace? What are their specific semantic features? Could you identify any specific factors behind the speaker's choice between imperative or non-imperative verb forms?
7. What speech situations are the most typical for the use of verbless imperative sentences?
8. What types of sentences in your language can be imperative by their semantics, though not by form?
9. Do imperative sentences in your language have any specific features related to their functional perspective?
10. If the imperative verb forms of your language can be used in non-imperative sentence, what "secondary" meanings do they convey? Can all imperative verb forms, or only some of them, convey these meanings? What is the correlation between such "secondary" and "primary" imperative meanings?