Imperative-hortative markers and finiteness

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss morphosyntactic differences in the verb forms occurring in sentences with the hortative marker davay (literally, ‘give’) in Russian, compared with other languages. In Brazilian Portuguese, English, and Korean, the verb within the scope of an explicit hortative marker appears in a non-finite form, as in Bora viajar (‘let’s travel’) and Let’s have lunch. In Russian, however, the verb can occur either in the infinitive form or inflected for tense, number, and person, depending on its aspectual feature. I present three possible analyses of such differences between Russian hortatives and those in other languages.