Quick question: is the negative imperative always formed with “noli” or “nolite” and then the infinitive? e.g., noli abire! “don’t go!” Is it ever formed with simply “non”? : non abi!
Gratias uobis mille ago.
Yes and no. The negative imperative (called a “prohibition”) is not always formed by noli + infinitive, but it is never properly formed by non + imperative, although this rule obviously must have changed at one point since it passed over into the Romances languages as you know, or else it was in vulgar usage. The negative adverb (Classical non) was originally used in prohibitions, as evidenced by the archaic ne + imperative construction (ne was originally used how non is Classically). For more on prohibitions, you can read about them [u]here[/u]. Probably the most common next to the noli construction is the ne + present/perfect subjunctive.
salue! I think negative imperatives are be rare - in classical Latin, at least. Classical Latin had these options: 1) noli or nolite and infinitive, 2) caue and present subjunctive, 3) ne and present subjunctive.
I am not sure about non, but ne and present imperative or future imperative can be used.
P.S. I hadn’t seen benissimi reply when posting. One has to be fast!
Ah! intellego. How interesting! That makes a great deal of sense.
Yes and no. The negative imperative (called a “prohibition”) is not always formed by noli + infinitive, but it is never properly formed by non + imperative, although this rule obviously must have changed at one point since it passed over into the Romances languages as you know, or else it was in vulgar usage.
I forget what Spanish does, but Italian is actually very similar (at least in sound) to the Latin; Italian simply places non in front of the infinitive for the prohibitive, much like the “noli” of Latin. Interesting how it worked out like that. Suddenly Italian makes a lot more sense.
Spanish uses “no” + present subjunctive for the negative imperative of the 2nd person singular (and so do Portuguese and Catalan):
¡Canta! vs. ¡No cantes!
And you know, now that I’m studying Romanian I can tell you that the way the imperatives function is similar to Italian:
Cântă! vs. Nu cânta!
A cânta (stress on last syllable) is the infinitive in Romanian.
While in the plural, again, it’s much like Italian (i.e. using the same form as the pres. ind.):
Cântaţi! vs. Nu cântaţi!
Forte!