Post by Hooligan on May 23, 2010 21:11:47 GMT -6
Hello again students —
At this point in our discussion of Talossan verbs, we have covered the non-finite moods (the infinitive form and the present and past participle forms), and the indicative mood (with its three tenses: present, past, and future). In this lecture we'll discuss how to use the subjunctive and imperative moods.
PART 1: THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD
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Use of the Subjunctive
The Talossan subjunctive mood has a more restricted set of uses than the subjunctive mood in other Romance languages. In fact, the Talossan subjunctive essentially is used in the same circumstances where English uses the subjunctive:
Many other Romance languages have separate conjugated forms for the present subjunctive and the past subjunctive. Talossan does not.
Talossan indicates this distinction in the same way that English does so, by employing the single subjunctive conjugated form in the perfect aspect. For example, schi tenadrás estescu clav, en tenadréu säpescu (= if you had been sick, I would have known it).
Expressing Uncertainty
The questionableness of a statement is expressed using an adverb, such as "perhaps" or "maybe". For example, consider the sentence "Perhaps I am old"; in this sentence, the verb "to be" is conjugated in the indicative mood ("am"). This sentence is constructed the same way in Talossan: salacor eu sint vell (= perhaps I am old).
In the similar sentence "I may be old", which uses the adverb "may", the verb "to be" appears in the subjunctive mood (as "be", rather than "am"). In Talossan, however, this sentence is still expressed the indicative: salacor éu sint vell (= perhaps I am old). In addition to salacor (= perhaps), Talossan also has the words fórtaßis (= possibly) and sà'starh (= maybe), which are used in the same way.
At this point in our discussion of Talossan verbs, we have covered the non-finite moods (the infinitive form and the present and past participle forms), and the indicative mood (with its three tenses: present, past, and future). In this lecture we'll discuss how to use the subjunctive and imperative moods.
PART 1: THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD
As was mentioned in a previous lecture, the subjunctive mood is sometimes called "the conditional tense", and it is used in much the same places that other Romance languages (like Spanish) use their conditional tense. Due to the fact that the conjugation of verbs into the subjunctive mood "looks" very similar to conjugation into any of the present-, past-, and future-tense forms of the indicative mood (with different word-endings for each different subject), many people do consider these verb forms to be as much a "tense" as a mood.[/td][td]
Conjugation of Regular Verbs
To form the subjunctive mood conjugations, the -arh ending of an infinitive verb is replaced by one of the endings shown in the table below. The Talossan verb amarh ("to love") is used for the examples.
amadréu (I may love) amadrás (you may love) amadra (he/she/it may love) amadrent (we/they may love) amadretz (y'all may love)
These simple word-ending changes apply to all Talossan verbs except those that are listed in the next section, which have irregular subjunctive mood conjugations.
Irregular Subjunctive Mood Verbs
Seven Talossan verbs have irregular subjunctive mood conjugations. Those verbs are listed below with the (improper) infinitive form to which the regular rules should be applied in order to conjugate the subjunctive form of the verb (for example, the verb credarh conjugates to creadréu, creadrás, etc.):
"to come/go")
and
viénarh (the manitive and
retrospective aspect auxiliary)
tenarh
[/td][td]tenadréu, etc.
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Use of the Subjunctive
The Talossan subjunctive mood has a more restricted set of uses than the subjunctive mood in other Romance languages. In fact, the Talossan subjunctive essentially is used in the same circumstances where English uses the subjunctive:
- To discuss something that is contrary to fact. For example, "if the door were green" is a subjunctive phrase. Contrast this with "if the door is green", which is in the indicative mood.
The Talossan equivalents are the subjunctive schi la poarta estadra virt (= if the door were green) and the indicative schi la poarta isch virt (= if the door is green). - To discuss something that is both uncertain and desired. For example, the verb "to write" is used in the subjunctive in "he recommended that we write our names".
This case also covers the expression of wishes, such as in cheréu qe povadréu menxharh acest-cì (= I wish that I could eat this). Note here how the first verb (cheréu = I wish) is in the indicative mood, while only the compound verb that describes the unfulfilled circumstance (povadréu menxharh = I could eat) is in the subjunctive mood.
In Talossan, it is very common to see these mandative statements introduced by the preposition qe. That is, the statement ¡qe las montagnas cantadrent! (= may/let the mountains sing!).
Thus, this same phrasing also serves to indicate an optative form, which is an imperative statement (command) directed to first- or third-person subjects. We will discuss imperatives to second-person subjects (that is, to "you" and to "y'all") later in this lecture; example optative statements would be qe noi menxhadrent (= let's eat) and ¡qe Díeu salvadra el regeu! (= God save the King! literally "that God would save the King!"). - To express a conditional clause, which would be true only if another, uncertain clause, were the case. For example, in the phrase "if you were sick, then I would know it", the "if" clause is subjunctive (as it is a statement contrary to fact) and the "then" clause is conditional. In Talossan, the subjunctive mood conjugations are used in both these clauses: schi estadrás clav, en säpadréu (= if you were sick, I would know it).
Many other Romance languages have separate conjugated forms for the present subjunctive and the past subjunctive. Talossan does not.
Talossan indicates this distinction in the same way that English does so, by employing the single subjunctive conjugated form in the perfect aspect. For example, schi tenadrás estescu clav, en tenadréu säpescu (= if you had been sick, I would have known it).
Expressing Uncertainty
The questionableness of a statement is expressed using an adverb, such as "perhaps" or "maybe". For example, consider the sentence "Perhaps I am old"; in this sentence, the verb "to be" is conjugated in the indicative mood ("am"). This sentence is constructed the same way in Talossan: salacor eu sint vell (= perhaps I am old).
In the similar sentence "I may be old", which uses the adverb "may", the verb "to be" appears in the subjunctive mood (as "be", rather than "am"). In Talossan, however, this sentence is still expressed the indicative: salacor éu sint vell (= perhaps I am old). In addition to salacor (= perhaps), Talossan also has the words fórtaßis (= possibly) and sà'starh (= maybe), which are used in the same way.
Historical note: The hypothesised adverb sà (= may, might) may have once been used before any infinitive or indicative-mood verb form (similar to and mimicking the way in which English uses "may" or "might" to indicate uncertainty): for example, éu sà menxhéu acest (= I might eat that), éu sà menxheveu acest (= maybe I ate that). However, sà has fallen out of use, probably displaced by its homophonic similarity to the common adverb sa (= so). However, sà survives in the contraction sà'starh (= maybe), seen above — which is an elision of sà estarh (= may to-be). This contraction of sà is theorised as having, in the past, given Talossan forms such as sà'starhéu (= perhaps I will be), but such forms are no longer seen and sà'starh éu füt (= perhaps I was) is used rather than the theorised equivalent sà'steveu.Notice that adverbs of uncertainty can be used with subjunctive expressions, in both English and Talossan, to cast more doubt on the subjunctive verb. For example, schi salacor estadrás clav, sà'starh en säpadréu (= if perhaps you were sick, maybe I would know it).[/blockquote]PART 2: THE IMPERATIVE MOOD
The imperative mood is used when issuing commands to second-person ("you" and "y'all") subjects. For example, the English phrases "Come here!" and "Eat your vegetables, children!" are both imperative statements.As always, I am available to answer questions about this lecture if anyone has any.
Conjugation of Regular Verbs
To form the imperative mood, simply use either the third-person singular ("he/she/it") or the second-person plural ("y/all") form of the present-tense conjugations. Note that it does not matter whether you are commanding a single person ("you") or multiple people ("y'all"); you may choose to use either one of these forms.
That is, all regular verbs will have their infinitive -arh ending changed to either -a or -etz when used in an imperative sense. For example, ¡menxha! and ¡menxhetz! both are commands to "eat!".
When it is important to indicate whether the commanded subject is "you" or "y'all", the subject pronoun is appended after the verb form; that is, as discussed in a prior lecture, the pronoun is used "in inversion". For example, ¡menxha-tu! and ¡menxhetz-tu! are both commands directed to a single person, while ¡menxha-voi! and ¡menxhetz-voi! are both commands directed to a group.
The imperative mood is also a case where object pronouns appear in inversion. If this is done, then the subject pronoun may not appear in inversion. For example, ¡tu xhetez-en! (= [you,] throw it!) and ¡menxhetz-lor, pigneux! (= eat them, children!)
These simple word-ending changes apply to all Talossan verbs except those that are listed in the next section, which have irregular imperative mood conjugations.
Irregular Imperative Mood Verbs
As stated earlier, the imperative mood usually takes the same form as either of two different present-tense conjugations. This is typically true even of irregular verbs. For example, the imperative forms for sâparh (= to know) are säp and säpetz. This is not always the case, however; for example, the verb credarh (= to believe) has the irregular third-person singular present-tense form crea (= he/she/it believes), but the imperative is formed without this irregularity: creda (= believe!), and credetz (= believe!).
The table below lists those verbs that have imperative forms which are created other than by application of the regular rules to create the two present-tense forms that are used for the imperative. Notice, then, that since estarh (= to be), like credarh, does not appear in the table below, this means that both of the forms esta and estetz are proper, even though esta (like creda) is not used as a present-tense form.
fäts and facetz (= do!) va and vetz and iöt ("come!/go!") morta and mortetz ("die!") pevetz [only] ("be able to!") säp and säpetz ("know!") scriitz [only] ("write!") tent and tischetz ("have!") volt [only] ("want!")
retrospective aspect auxiliary)vena and venetz ("be about to/be just...!")