Jussive mood

The jussive (abbreviated JUS) is a grammatical mood of verbs for issuing orders, commanding, or exhorting (within a subjunctive framework). English verbs are not marked for this mood. The mood is similar to the cohortative mood, which typically applies to the first person by appeal to the object's duties and obligations, and the imperative, which applies to the second (by command). The jussive however typically covers the first and third persons.[1] It can also apply to orders by their author's wish in the mandative subjunctive, as in the English, "The bank insists that she repay her debt."

Examples

German

In the German language, the jussive mood is expressed using the present subjunctive (named "Konjunktiv I" or "Möglichkeitsform I" in German). It is typical of formal documents or religious texts, such as the Bible. Because it was more common in past centuries, it has often survived in proverbs:

Es	kehre	jeder	vor	seiner	eigenen	Tür.
It	sweep+SBJV+PRES+3S	everyone	in front of	his	own	door
Everybody should sweep in front of his own door (Everybody should mind his own business).

It is still common that recipes are written in jussive mood:

Man	nehme	drei	Eier
One	take+SBJV+PRES+3S	three	eggs
Take three eggs

Apart from that, jussive mood is still quite common in contemporary German. However, the pronouns he, she, and it might not be used directly; otherwise jussive would be mistaken for a dated form of courteous imperative. Instead, they will have to be replaced by "who", "someone", "everyone", "the new colleague" and so on:

Wer	noch	eine	Karte	braucht,	melde	sich	bei	mir
Who	still	a	ticket	need+IND+PRES+3S,	report+SBJV+PRES+3S	self	at	me
If someone still needs a ticket, just contact me.

Finally an example for jussive that would have served as a courteous imperative when addressing people of lower, but not lowest, rank:

Komme	Er	her	und	helfe	Er	mir!
come+SUBJ+SBJV+3S	he	here	and	help+SBJV+PRES+3S	he	me!
Come over and help me!

Note that Er is written in capital letters here. Even if this construction is not used anymore in common German, it will be recognized as being an imperative (German Wikipedia lists the example "Sei Er nicht so streng!" as a historic form of an imperative).

Latin

In the Latin language, the present subjunctive can convey jussive meaning in the third person (jussive subjunctive or coniunctivus iussivus):[2]

• Adiuvet ("Let him help.")
• Veniant ("Let them come.")

A jussive use of the present subjunctive is also attested for the second person in sayings and poetry, as well as in early Latin.

• iniurias fortunae [...] relinquas ("Leave behind [...] the wrongs of Fortune", saying from Cicero's Tusculanae Disputationes)
• doceas iter ("Show us the way", poetry from Virgil's Aeneid)[3]

Russian

The jussive mood in modern Russian serves as an imperative (for issuing orders, commanding or requesting), but covers third person instead of second person. Always formed with a particle пусть, which is derived from the verb пускать (to let, to allow).

Imperative: Беги! (Run!)

Jussive: Пусть бежит (similar to Let him run)

Finnish

While there is a separate imperative form in Finnish, the jussive mood is used for the third person, where the imperative is not suitable. The jussive's ending is -koon ~ -köön in the singular and -koot ~ -kööt in the plural. The jussive can be used to express speakers' positions or opinions that somebody is allowed to do something or that somebody is expected to do something.

• Eläköön! ("Let-he/she/it-live", Hooray!)
• Noudattakoon ("person-is-declared-to-obey", typical expression in legislative context)
• Tapahtukoon tahtosi ("Let-it-happen your-will", let thy will be done)

Esperanto

The jussive mood, called the volitive in Esperanto, is used for wishing and requesting, and serves as the imperative. It covers some of the uses of the subjunctive in European languages:

Iru! (Go!)

Mi petis, ke li venu. (I asked him to come.)

Li parolu. (Let him speak.)

Ni iru. (Let's go.)

Benu ĉi tiun domaĉon. (Bless this hovel.)

Mia filino belu! (May my daughter be beautiful!)

Arabic

Classical and Standard Arabic verbs conjugate for at least three distinct moods in the imperfect: indicative, subjunctive and jussive. In the dialects, these moods are not morphologically marked.

The jussive is used after the preposition li- 'to' to express a command to a third person.

ليفعله

li-yaf‘al-hu

to-do.jus.3sg.masc-it

'Let him do it.'

A further use of this mood is in negative commands.

لا تأخذ ذلك اللحم

lā ta’xudh dhālika l-laḥm

not take.jus.2sg.masc that the-meat

'Don't take that meat.'

The jussive form is also used in past tense sentences negated by lam (but not mā).

لم تأكل الدجاج

lam ta’kuli d-dajāj

not.past eat.jus.3sg.fem the-chicken

'She didn't eat the chicken.'

Hindi

For the non-aspectual verb forms, Hindi uses the subjunctive forms as imperatives for the formal 2nd person and the 3rd person singular and plural grammatical persons.[4]

jussive mood - 2P formal आप बैठे रहें aap baiṭhe rahein [you].DIR [sit].PTCP [stay].JUS You keep sitting!

jussive mood - 3P singular वो आये और लेके जाये vo aaye aur leke jaaye [he/she].DEM [sit].JUS [and] [take].CONJ [go].JUS (that) he come, take (it), and go!

jussive mood - 3P plural ये लोग वो काम अभी करें ye log vo kaam abhi karein [they].DEM [that].DEM [work].DIR [now].ADV [do].JUS (that) these people do that work now!

References

1. Loos, Eugene E.; Anderson, Susan; Day, Dwight H., Jr.; Jordan, Paul C.; Wingate, J. Douglas (eds.). "What is jussive mood?". Glossary of linguistic terms. SIL International. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
2. Hanslik, Rudolf; et al. (1950). Lateinische Grammatik (in German). Vienna: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky.
3. Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges. Ginn and Company. 1903.
4. "Third Person Imperatives".

Further reading

• Dobrushina, Nina (2012). "What is the jussive for? A study of third person commands in six Caucasian Languages". Linguistics. 50 (1): 1–25. doi:10.1515/ling-2012-0001.
• Bar-Adon, Aaron (1966). "New Imperative and Jussive Formations in Contemporary Hebrew". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 86 (4): 410–3. doi:10.2307/596497. JSTOR 596497.
• Orlinsky, Harry M (1941). "On the Cohortative and Jussive after an Imperative or Interjection in Biblical Hebrew". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 31 (4): 371–82. doi:10.2307/1452235. JSTOR 1452235.
• Huehnergard, John (1987). "The Feminine Plural Jussive in Old Aramaic". Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. 137 (2): 266–77. JSTOR 43379556.
• Palmer, F. R. (2001). "Imperative and Jussive". Mood and Modality. Cambridge University Press. pp. 136–42. ISBN 978-0-521-80479-0.