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From: hopkins@hopkins.rtp.dg.com (Edward Hopkins)
Subject: Re: 1st person imperatives
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Message-ID: <1995Aug3.203318.21960@dg-rtp.dg.com>
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 95 20:33:18 GMT
References: <DCCJ8D.Ett@midway.uchicago.edu> <librikDCCyrs.Lr7@netcom.com> <1995Jul31.113859.23108@onionsnatcorp.ox.ac.uk>
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gmb@natcorp.ox.ac.uk (Glynis Baguley) writes:
librik@netcom.com (David Librik) writes:
>> 
>> In older English, you see imperatives appearing with explicit subjects:
>> "seek ye the one known as Clint."  Did English ever have other persons
>> in imperatives, as Latin has?  Was there ever a third person imperative
>> e.g. "Sing John" (different from "Sing, John," a 2sg imp followed by a
>> vocative) equivalent to Latin "canet Johannes" -- expressing a command
>> that John sing, but not a command directed at John?  [Note: the form cited
>> is the jussive subjunctive; I can't remember the forms of the true
>> imperative.]
>[...]
>
>Would `God rest ye merry, gentlemen' and `God bless you!' fit into
>this category? Is God the only person you can order about in this way?

Saints preserve us!
I assume you're using "person" in the grammatical sense here.
It seems any supernatural creature is subject to this conjuration,
e.g. "De'il take you!"

-- Ed Hopkins
hopkins@dg-rtp.dg.com
______________________________________
CONJUGATION FOR A HULKING ENTOMOLOGIST
     I big.  I bag.  I have bug.
