Punctiliar imperative Honorific imperative

The speaker gives this order to women who have just brought the beer pots. Everybody has the pot right in front of him and each pot has a reed to suck the beer with. Nominalized I type clause as a complement of immediative imperative main clause verb 18.2.1.1 It is obvious that unvolitional verbs like ‘to die’ or ‘to become healed’ cannot have imperative. However they may be nominalized and marked for dative case. The NP becomes the indirect object of the main clause which has a volitional verb in imperative. Consider the following two examples. 18.27 ɕi-la dʑuk. die-DAT run[IMP] ‘Become dead’ Lit. ‘Go to death’ A speaker may utter this curse only to someone who has deeply offended him. Normally this would not be an acceptable utterance. 18.28 ʈhak-la dʑuk. become.healed-DAT run[IMP] ‘Be healed’ Someone who is a healer may utter this to a sick person. It is not a wish that an ordinary person may utter to a sick friend but a command. Nominalized T1 type clause as a complement of the immediative imperative main clause verb It is equally obvious that verbs like ‘to understand’ or ‘to know’ cannot be used in imperative. However they may be nominalized with an object nominalizer -pa. The NP becomes the direct object of the main clause which has a volitional verb in imperative. Subjects are co-referential and the rest of the clause is the object of the main clause. Also a semantic shift takes place in the nominalized verb. Consider the following nominalizer and the new verb are underlined. 18 .29 ŋ-e tam ha khoo-wa tɕhi. 1SG-GEN message aud.impact hear;understand-NMLZ;Q do;VBZR[IMP] ‘Understand what I say now’ Or: ‘Make an effort to grasp my speech’ This T1 type verb ha khoo has two senses, ‘to hear’ and ‘to understand’. It is the latter sense that it has in this example. The second person addressee is left implicit. The subjects of the nominalized clause and the main clause are co-referential. 18.30 iki ɕii-pa tɕhi. writing know-NMLZ;Q do;VBZR[IMP] ‘Make an effort to learn reading and writing’ This refers to an event of learning. Person may already know a bit how to read and write but he needs to make his final push to have this new skill under control. After one is over this hump he may tell others that he knows how to read and write. There is more about this in chapter 14 on evidentials.

18.2.2 Punctiliar imperative

In addition to a command or a suggestion the punctiliar imperative conveys the idea of punctiliar or momentary action in fulfilling the command or suggestion. It signals short span of an action. The marker is - loŋ which combines with imperative verb roots of volitional action verbs. When this typically inflectional suffix combines with non-finite verbs it nominalizes them. I have treated that under a different section, on complementation in section 18.11.4. Consider the following examples of this imperative structure the marker is underlined. 18.31 u-ki philiŋ u-ko pur-loŋ. that-GEN basket that-head throw.away[IMP]-PUNC ‘Throw that basket away’ Speaker considers the basket useless. Punctiliar imperative in this one entails the idea of no more hesitation, throw it right away. 18.32 hi-ni satt ɕip tɕik-ki tɕam ɕok-loŋ this-ABL secretary INDF-ERG away put.leave[IMP]-PUNC khit- raŋ-ki ʈoo u-ko. TE58 2PL-self-GEN tradition that-head ‘Then one of the secretaries said, “Abandon right away that tradition of yours”’ Punctiliar imperative in this example conveys the idea that the suggestion be carried out momentarily, not like a long process. This is a suggestion not a real command by a low ranking government official who addresses the people of a Lhomi village. 18.33 hi-ntuk t ɕhi-pa-la khanʈ-e simpa ɕor-kuk=ka? this-ADVZR do;VBZR-NMLZ;Q-DAT what-GEN mind go.after-PROG;VIS=Q hi-ko t ɕam lø toŋ-loŋ. TE64 this-head away desire send;VBZR[IMP]-PUNC ‘Why does your mind go after that kind of deeds? Abandon them without hesitation’ Speaker is encouraging his audience to mend their ways in a momentary action.

18.2.3 Honorific imperative

The honorific system in Lhomi is very complicated. It usually requires the replacement of the whole verb and sometimes even nouns and adjectives. Kinship terms, as terms of address, often determine the honorific degree indicated in verbs. It is not my intention to go into details of the honorific system in this section. In the honorific imperative the replacement of the ordinary verb with an honorific one may sometimes be enough. An honorific verb behaves like any other verb of the same type. However if the speaker wants to be polite he uses proper address terms and precative see section 18.3. 18.34 men t ɕik naŋ. medicine INDF give[HON.IMP] ‘Please give me some medicine’ Though an honorific verb is used, this construction is not highly honorific and is not used often. Precative with honorific verb is more common instead, see examples 18.53 and 18.54.

18.2.4 Speaker centered imperative