28.1275, Qs: Imperatives in Latin, Finnish, Spanish

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-1275. Wed Mar 15 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.1275, Qs: Imperatives in Latin, Finnish, Spanish

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Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2017 12:34:09
From: Catherine Leger [leger.catherine at gmail.com]
Subject: Imperatives in Latin, Finnish, Spanish

 
In at least some Romance languages, the equivalent of 'to see' can appear in
imperative constructions, as in (1a) (typical of certain French dialects) and
(1b) (in Brazilian Portuguese).

(1) a. Ferme voir la porte!

close to see-infinitive the door

b. Vê se fecha a porta!

to see-imperative if close-present the door

Although the constructions are slightly different in the two languages (voir
is never conjugated in these structures in French, in contrast to Brazilian
Portuguese, which also contains if), they convey the same meaning (Close the
door!) and the equivalent of to see has the same value: to see has nothing to
do with the perception verb; it is used to highlight the fact that the hearer
should infer from the context that s/he should close the door, that it is the
appropriate action to do given the circumstances (for instance, because there
is too much noise in the corridor). Since these constructions exist in French
and (Brazilian) Portuguese, it would be reasonable to assume that they have
been inherited from the mother language, Latin. Have anybody encountered
similar constructions in Latin. If so, would it be possible to provide
examples if this is the case? Besides Latin (and other Romance languages), are
there any other languages with similar constructions? Someone mentioned at a
conference that a similar structure exist in Finnish. Does anyone have data to
provide? I have heard also that Spanish (Buenos Aires) has a construction
similar to the one in Brazilian Portuguese with the verb fijar. Again, does
anyone has data to provide? I already have plenty of examples for French and
Brazilian Portuguese.
 

Linguistic Field(s): Pragmatics

Language Family(ies): Romance



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