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,^{[citation needed]} and the imperative, which applies to the second person (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

It

kehre

sweep+SBJV+PRS+3S

jeder

everyone

vor

in front of

seiner

his

eigenen

own

Tür.

door

Es kehre jeder vor seiner eigenen Tür.

It sweep+SBJV+PRS+3S everyone {in front of} his own door

Everyone 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

One

nehme

take+SBJV+PRS+3S

drei

three

Eier

eggs

Man nehme drei Eier

One take+SBJV+PRS+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

Whoever

noch

still

eine

a

Karte

ticket

braucht,

need+IND+PRS+3S,

melde

report+SBJV+PRS+3S

sich

self

bei

at

mir

me

Wer noch eine Karte braucht, melde sich bei mir

Whoever still a ticket need+IND+PRS+3S, report+SBJV+PRS+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

come+SUBJ+SBJV+3S

Er

he

her

here

und

and

helfe

help+SBJV+PRS+3S

Er

he

mir!

me!

Komme Er her und helfe Er mir!

come+SUBJ+SBJV+3S he here and help+SBJV+PRS+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 has a usage labelled the "jussive subjunctive" or coniunctivus iussivus that expresses 3rd-person orders:^[2][3]

• 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.^[4]

• 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)

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. It is 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 can be expressed in Esperanto using the volitive verb form, which is made by adding -u to a verb stem.

Iru! (Go!)

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

Li parolu. (Let him speak.)

Ni iru. (Let's go.)

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.^[5]

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

ليفعله

li-yaf‘al-hu

to-do.JUS.2SG.MASC-it

li-yaf‘al-hu

to-do.JUS.2SG.MASC-it

'Have him do it.'

A further use of this mood is in negative commands.^[5]

لا تأخذ ذلك اللحم

lā

not

ta’xudh

take.JUS.2SG.MASC

dhālika

that

l-laḥm

the-meat

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 لم (but not mā ما).^[5]

لم تأكل الدجاج

lam

not.PAST

ta’kuli

eat.JUS.3SG.FEM

d-dajāj

the-chicken

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.^[6]

jussive mood - 2P formal

आप

aap

[you].DIR

बैठे

baiṭhe

[sit].PTCP

रहें

rahein

[stay].JUS

आप बैठे रहें

aap baiṭhe rahein

[you].DIR [sit].PTCP [stay].JUS

You keep sitting!

jussive mood - 3P singular

वो

vo

[he/she].DEM

आये

aaye

[come].JUS

और

aur

[and]

लेके

leke

[take].CONJ

जाये

jaaye

[go].JUS

वो आये और लेके जाये

vo aaye aur leke jaaye

[he/she].DEM [come].JUS [and] [take].CONJ [go].JUS

(that) he come, take (it), and go!

jussive mood - 3P plural

ये लोग

ye log

[they].DEM

वो

vo

[that].DEM

काम

kaam

[work].DIR

अभी

abhi

[now].ADV

करें

karein

[do].JUS

{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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
2. Bennett, Charles (1918). New Latin Grammar. Boston and Chicago: Allyn and Bacon. § 275.
3. Hanslik, Rudolf; et al. (1950). Lateinische Grammatik (in German). Vienna: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky.^{[page needed]}
4. Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges. Ginn and Company. 1903. p. 279.
5. Abu Chakra, Faruk (2018). Arabic: An Essential Grammar (2nd ed.). Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 291–293.
6. "Third Person Imperatives". 6 August 2013.

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. S2CID 146989136.
• 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.