Imperatives in Luo Emily Schafer In order to form imperative constructions in Luo, there are two things we must understand. First of all, we must determine how the imperative verb is formed. Once we know this, we can investigate constructions which use the imperative verb. There are different constructions depending on how many people are being addressed and whether the imperative is positive or negative. We start by considering how to form the imperative verb. 1. Forming the Imperative Verb The imperative verb is formed differently depending on whether the verb is transitive or intransitive. For intransitive verbs, whether or not the verb takes /-o/ is also important. 1.1 Intransitive Verbs Without /-o/ For these verbs, the imperative is the same as the verb stem, as shown in the following examples: (1) Di go! (2) miEl dance! (3) wEr sing! 1.2 Intransitive Verbs With /-o/ For intransitive verbs with /-o/, the verb stem is the part of the verb occurring before the /-o/. Then, imperatives are formed by the following rules: Verb imperative = verb stem - í / verb stem ends in a obstruent verb stem / verb stem ends in a sonorant In the examples below, examples (4) through (7) show the first rule and (8) through (11) show the second: (4) ndik-í write! (5) tEd-í cook! (6) cuNg-í stand! (7) wOT-í walk! (8) ti work! (9) som read! (10) par think! (11) nyiEr laugh! However, I did find one exception to these rules. The imperative for 'see!' is /nE/ even though the verb stem is /nEn/ making the expected imperative verb */nEn/ also. Since other verb stems ending in nasals follow the rules stated above (such as /som/, 'read!'), it seems that this verb is a single exception. 1.3 Transitive Verbs The imperative for transitive verbs is just the verb stem. Since the imperative is formed the same way for all transitive verbs, some verbs will have different imperative forms for the transitive and intransitive cases. However, other verbs will have the same imperative form in both the transitive and the intransitive cases. This can be seen by comparing examples (13), (14) and (15) with examples (4), (5) and (9) from section 1.2. (12) cam rabolo eat the banana! (13) ndik barua write the letter! (14) tEd ciEmo cook the food! (15) som sigana read the story! 2. Constructions with the Imperative Verb In the following sections we will consider how to make positive and negative imperatives, hortatives and reflexive imperatives. We will also examine how to direct a command to a group instead of to a single person. To denote this, 'plural' will follow the gloss of the construction. In these constructions the word order is similar to that found in other non-imperative sentences. 2.1 Positive Imperatives Positive imperatives addressed to a single person are made using the imperative verb. The subject being addressed does not appear in the construction, probably because the subject is understood in the context of the discourse. Any objects or prepositional phrases that appear in the clause occur in the same order as in simple transitive or intransitive sentences. So, the two main constructions are as follows: verb[imperative] (recipient) (object) (16) riNgí run! (17) ciEm eat! (18) cam rabolo eat the banana! (19) ndik barua write the letter! (20) mi nyaTi mpira give the ball to the child! verb imperative (prepositional phrase) (21) Di go! (22) Di e duka go to the store! This order remains the same when the object becomes pronominal, although the pronoun attaches to the imperative. (23) som-E read it! For imperatives with three participants, the word order is the same as in the corresponding indicative constructions with three participants. For a more complete discussion of the behavior of three participant constructions, see Chiao & Schafer (1998:49). The changes in word order can be seen by comparing the following examples: (24) mi nyaTi mpira give the ball to the child! (25) mi-E mpira give the ball to him! (26) mi-E nyaTi give it to the child! (27) mi-E go give it to him! The one interesting thing to note is that the pronoun /go/ is used even though the object being given is inanimate. This disproves the hypothesis set forth by Chiao & Schafer about the use of this pronoun (1998: 50). In indicative three participant constructions, the given object is dropped when pronominal, singular and inanimate. This does not happen in the imperative three person construction. It is possible that pronouns are never dropped when the verb is imperative or that the pronoun is used in the imperative case in order to clarify the meaning of the sentence. Also, /go/ is not used when the recipient is lexical, the object pronoun /E/ is used instead. This is the same as in indicative sentences. Imperatives can also be addressed to groups of people. In this case a marker /uru/ appears after the imperative verb. Otherwise, word order remains the same as for imperatives to a single person with lexical objects. This can be seen by comparing the following examples with examples (17), (18), (21), and (22). (26) ciEm uru eat! (plural) (27) cam uru rabolo eat the banana! (plural) (28) Di uru go! (plural) (29) Di uru e duka go to the store (plural) When objects become pronominal in these constructions, they attach to the verb, instead of to /uru/. This changes the word order slightly from the imperatives addressed to a single person, as seen by comparing (30) to (23). (30) som-E uru read it! (plural) For intransitive verbs, there are no longer two classes of imperatives for positive imperatives to a group. Instead of a class of imperatives which take -i, all plural positive imperatives are formed by the verb stem alone. This can be seen by comparing examples (31) and (32). (31) tEdí cook! (32) tEd uru cook! (plural) 2.2 Negative Imperatives Imperatives can also be negative. Negative imperatives are marked by the negative marker /kik/. Note that this is different from the negative marker /Ok/ used for indicative sentences. Also, in all negative commands, a subject pronoun is used: /i-/ marks second person singular and /u-/ marks second person plural. These are the same as the subject pronouns used in simple sentences. /kik/ occurs at the beginning of the sentence and the subject pronoun precedes the verb. The rest of the sentence retains the same word order. So, the pattern is: kik pronoun - verb imperative (objects or prepositional phrases) (33) kik i-Di don't go! (34) kik i-riNgí don't run! (35) kik i-ciEm don't eat! (36) kik u-Di don't go! (plural) (37) kik u-riNgí don't run! (plural) (38) kik u-ciEm don't eat! (plural) So, now instead of using /uru/ the number of people being addressed in marked by the two different pronouns, /i/ and /u/. It is also important to note that the imperative verb is the same as was discussed in the section 1: intransitive verbs ending in obstruents add an /i/ to become imperative. Unlike imperatives to a single person, this is true for negative imperatives addressed both to a single person and to a group, as shown by (34) and (37). The word order for these constructions remains the same as we have seen for other imperative constructions. (39) kik u-cam rabolo don't eat the banana! (plural) (40) kik i-mi nyaTi mpira don't give the ball to the child! (41) kik i-som-E don't read it! 2.3 Hortatives The hortative, or first person imperative, is the equivalent of 'let's verb' in English. It is a command exhorting the speaker and others to a common action. In Luo, this construction varies slightly depending on whether the speaker is including one other person or a group in the action. This distinction of people is again made using the marker /uru/ (it was also used to form positive imperatives to a group of people, as discussed in section 2.1). The general construction for hortatives is: wa verb imperative (uru) (42) wa Di uru let's go! (plural) (43) wa ciEm uru let's eat! (plural) (44) wa riNgí let's run! (45) wa riNg uru let's run! (plural) The main difference between hortatives and other imperatives is the addition of the first person plural pronoun, /wa/. Since imperatives are usually not addressed to oneself, it makes sense that a pronoun is not needed when addressing others but is added when including oneself in the command. As seen above, the form of the verb varies depending on whether one person is being addressed or many. This difference can be seen in (44) and (45). Verbs ending in /-í/ drop /í/ before /uru/, as they did for positive imperatives, section 2.1. Negative hortatives are constructed the same way as other negative imperatives, except that the pronoun /wa/ is used instead of /i/ or /u/. Also, for plural, negative hortatives /uru/ follows the verb. (46) kik wa-riNgi let's not run! (47) kik wa-riNg uru let's not run! (plural) I do not have any data of hortatives in transitive constructions, but I hypothesize that the word order will be the same as in the other imperative constructions we have examined. 2.4 Reflexive Imperatives Reflexive and reciprocal imperatives are expresseed idneticallt in Luo. However there are different construction depending on whether they are addressed to one person or to a group of people. A reflexive marker /r/ occurs in both constructions. For reflexive imperative commands to a single person, the second person singular pronoun /i/ follows this reflexive marker. So, the construction is: verb stem - r - í (48) cik-rí jump! (49) puOnj-rí teach yourself! (50) gO-rí hit yourself! (51) ruak-rí dress yourself! (52) luok-rí bathe yourself! This construction works both for prototypical reflexive verb, such as 'hit yourself' and for middle reflexives, such as 'dress yourself'. For reflexive imperatives addressed to a group, the third person pronoun /E/ instead of /i/. Also, plural marker /uru/ is used in this construction. verb stem- r - E uru (53) gO-rE uru hit yourselves!/ hit each other! (54) hEr-rE uru love yourselves!/ love each other! (55) cik-rE uru jump! (plural) (56) ruak-rE uru dress yourselves!/ dress each other! (57) nEn-rE uru see yourselves!/ see each other! It is not clear why the pronoun /E/ is used in this construction instead of the second person plural pronoun /u/. One possibility has to do with the spreading of /E/ as a reflexive pronoun (Chiao & Schafer 1998:45). It is possible that /E/ has spread into the second person plural for imperatives. Also, this construction can be shortened to: verb stem - r - ú (58) gO-rú hit yourselves!/ hit each other! (59) kuak-rú hug each other! (60) nEn-rú see yourselves! / see each other! The construction for negative reflexive commands is quite similar to that of other negative imperatives. The only difference is the addition of the reflexive marker /r/ and a pronoun, /i/ for second person singular, /u/ for second person plural, after the verb stem. The resulting construction is: kik pronoun- verb stem- r - pronoun (61) kik i-gO-ri do not hit yourself! (62) kik u-gO-ru do not hit yourselves (63) kik u-cik-ru do not jump! (plural) 3. Conclusion In this paper, we have investigated imperative constructions in Luo. First, we found that imperative verbs are formed differently depending on whether they are transitive or intransitive and also depending on their final consonant. We also found that there are separate constructions for positive and negative imperatives, and the constructions very slightly depending on whether they are addressed to one person or to a group. The plural marker /uru/ is often used to express commands directed to a group. We found that these imperatives could be extended to hortatives with the addition of the first person singular pronoun, /wa/. Finally, we investigated reflexive imperatives and found similar patterns. With all of these imperative constructions, word order is very similar to that of non-imperative constructions. 4. References Chiao, Sue Wen and Emily Schafer. 1998. A grammatical sketch of Luo. The Rice Undergraduate 2: 39-60. Back to grammatical sketches