Imperative Mood in Persian

The main goal of this research is to investigate the mood in imperative constructions in Persian. Mood is usually marked on the verbal complex, and languages often have grammatical systems that distinguish different moods. In Persian, subjunctive and imperative constructions are formed by adding the prefix "be-" to the verbal stem. Although the traditional grammarians recognize at least three independent moods, namely indicative, subjunctive, and imperative, the homonymy of the verbal prefix leads to ambiguity and difficulties in determining the number of moods in Persian. Some of the recent studies reject the distinction between the imperative and subjunctive moods in Persian and consider the former a subclass of the latter based on the verbal morphology and overlapping therein. In this paper, by challenging this view, we argue that regardless of distinction between their functions and speech acts, the syntactic behaviors of these two constructions are different. To support this claim, the paper presents arguments based on serial verb constructions (SVCs), coordination, and the distribution of subjunctive and imperative constructions in certain embedded contexts, showing that these two moods are distinct in Persian due to their syntactic behavior and that Persian, like many other languages, has an independent imperative mood.
Modality is a semantic concept that describes the speaker's attitude towards the status of a proposition and is related to notions such as necessity and possibility. This concept is usually reflected in sentences in what is known as mood. Mood, tense, and aspect are three categories that are normally marked on the verbal complex. Languages often have grammatical systems that distinguish different moods. Persian, like many other languages, has traditionally been recognized as having at least three distinct moods: declarative, subjunctive, and imperative. The indicative mood lacks any morphological markers, while the subjunctive and imperative moods are marked by the prefix "be-" on the verbal stem. This prefix may be null in most complex predicates.
Although traditional grammarians have recognized at least three independent moods in Persian, the homonymy of this verbal prefix, or the overlap in the subjunctive and imperative verbal morphology, leads to ambiguity and difficulties in determining the number of moods in Persian. Some of the recent studies reject the distinction between the imperative and subjunctive moods in Persian and consider the former a subclass of the latter based on the verbal morphology and overlapping therein. In other words, they consider the prefix "be-" a marker of subjunctivity rather than a marker of imperative mood in imperative sentences. In this paper, by challenging this view, we claim that regardless of the distinction between their functions and speech acts, the syntactic behaviors of imperative and subjunctive sentences are completely different.
In relation to this debate, previous studies have discussed the semantic and functional properties of subjunctive and imperative moods in different languages. The exact definitions of "subjunctive" have proven to be difficult to make precise, and it is hard to find agreement on this in the literature. According to Siegel (2009) an Bybee et al. (1994), the term "subjunctive" is utilized to designate specific verb forms that are mandatory in particular subordinate clause constructions. Bybee et al. (1994) believe that subjunctives are semantically vacuous elements. Noonan (2007), by focusing on the distinction between indicative and subjunctive moods in complementation, provides a functional approach to subjunctivity. He characterizes the main function of the subjunctive mood as the encoding of some "dependency" within the subordinate clause in which it is used. Therefore, he treats subjunctivity as a marker of dependency. According to Nikolaeva (2016), the imperative mood is prototypically used to convey directive force, and a directive act is an attempt to get the hearer to perform an act. The most prototypical imperative forms express commands, orders, and requests; however, the meaning of imperative is beyond order and command and includes other meanings such as advice, permission, good wishes, instruction, suggestion, etc.
Method
This study employs an analytical-explanatory method for data analysis. Because the topic is theoretical, the data are primarily gathered from library sources, daily interactions of the authors and speakers, and the authors' linguistic intuition. In the analysis, the paper provides some syntactic arguments based on serial verb constructions (SVCs), coordination, and the distribution of subjunctive and imperative constructions in certain embedded contexts. These data are used to show that the subjunctive and imperative forms in Persian behave differently at the syntactic level and therefore represent two independent moods.
Results
The focus of this research lies in the investigation of syntactic behavior of the imperative mood. Analyzing some Persian constructions reveals the significant role different moods play in the grammaticality of sentences, such that replacing the subjunctive mood with the imperative mood renders the sentences ungrammatical. Our first argument is based on serial verb constructions (SVCs). Aikhenvald (2006) emphasizes that all verbs within an SVC have the same value for mood, such that using different mood markings is not possible. Persian SVCs show that imperative mood is independent and distinct from subjunctive mood, since a mixture of the imperative and the subjunctive mood within an SVC causes ill-formedness.
Another argument is grounded in coordination. In Persian, coordination of clauses with the same mood is acceptable, while constructions with different moods cannot be conjoined. Persian data show that the coordination of the imperative mood and the subjunctive leads to ungrammaticality. This confirms the differentiation between the imperative and the subjunctive moods. Our third observation highlights the interaction between mood and polarity. It is observed that the negative marker on some matrix verbs causes the embedded verb to be in the form of subjunctive, and its replacement with another mood such as indicative or imperative leads to unacceptability. The final argument concerns the distribution of subjunctive and imperative constructions in certain embedded contexts. In Persian, subjunctive clauses appear in sentences embedded under some predicates such as control predicate, causatives, directives, etc.
Conclusion
Based on the analyses presented, we conclude that the subjunctive and imperative moods in Persian are two distinct and independent moods. Substituting the subjunctive form with the imperative one renders sentences ungrammatical, which clearly demonstrates that the imperative mood cannot be considered a subclass of the subjunctive. Overall, Persian exhibits two separate moods at the syntactic level, each with its own grammatical behavior and distribution.
Ethical Considerations
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Funding
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Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.