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constituting the same form of the considered verbal mood. Not only constructions featuring the third person
singular without its categorial mark -(e)s, but also constructions of other personal forms of the verb are ordered
under this heading. Thus,
we distinguish the indicated mood form of the verb in sentences like "Happen what
may", "God forgive us", "Long live our friendship", "It is important that he arrive here as soon as possible", and
also "The agreement stipulates that the goods pass customs free", "It is recommended that the elections start on
Monday", "My orders are that the guards draw up", etc.
Semantical observation of the constructions with the analysed verbal form shows that within the general
meaning of desired or hypothetical action, it signifies different attitudes towards the process denoted by the
verb and the situation denoted by the construction built up around it, namely, besides desire, also supposition,
speculation, suggestion, recommendation, inducement of various degrees of insistence including commands.
Thus, the analysed form-type presents the mood of attitudes. Traditionally it is called "subjunctive", or in
more modern terminological nomination, "subjunctive one". Since the term "subjunctive" is also used to cover
the oblique mood system as a whole, some sort of terminological specification is to be introduced that would
give a semantic alternative to the purely formal "subjunctive one" designation. Taking into account the
semantics of the form-type in question, we suggest that it should be named the "spective" mood, employing just
the Latin base for the notion of "attitudes". So, what we are describing now, is the spective form of the
subjunctive mood, or, in keeping with the usual working linguistic parlance, simply the spec-tive mood, in its
pure, classical manifestation.
Going on with our analysis, we must consider now the imperative form of the verd, traditionally referred to
as a separate, imperative mood.
In accord with the formal principles of analysis, it is easy to see that the verbal imperative morphemically
coincides with the spective mood, since it presents the same infinitive stem, though in relation to the second
person only. Turning to the semantics of the imperative, we note here as constitutive the meaning of attitudes
of the general spective description. This concerns the forms both of be and the other verbs, cf:. Be on your
guard! Be off ! Do be careful with the papers! Don't be blue! Do as I ask you! Put down the address, will you?
About turm!
As is known, the imperative mood is analysed in certain grammatical treatises as semantically direct mood,
in this sense being likened to the indicative [Ganshina, Vasilevskaya, 200]. This kind of interpretation, though,
is hardly convincing. The imperative form displays every property of a form of attitudes, which can easily be
shown by means of equivalent transformations. Cf:.
Be off! > I demand that you be off. Do be careful with the papers! > My request is that you do be careful
with the papers. Do as I ask you! > I insist that you do as I ask you. About turn! > I command that you turn
about.
Let us take it for demonstrated, then, that the imperative verbal forms may be looked upon as a variety of
the spective, i.e. its particular, if very important, manifestation.*
* Cf. L.S. Barkhudarov's consideration of both varieties of forms under the same heading of "imperative".
At this stage of study we must pay attention to how time is expressed with the analysed form. In doing so
we should have in mind that, since the expression of verbal time is categorial, a consideration of it does not
necessarily break off with the formal principle of observation. In this connection, first, we note that the
infinitive stem taken for the building up of the spective is just the present-tense stem of the integral
conjugation of the verb. The spective be, the irregular (suppletive) formation, is the only exception from this
correlation (though, as we have seen, it does give the general pattern for the mood identification in cases other
than the third person singular). Second, we observe that constructions with the spective, though expressed by
the present-stem of the verb, can be transferred into the past plane context. Cf:.
It was recommended that the elections start on Monday. My orders were that the guards draw up. The
agreement stipulated that the goods pass customs free.
This phenomenon marks something entirely new from the point of view of the categorial status of the verbal
time in the indicative. Indeed, in the indicative the category of time is essentially absolutive, while in the sphere
of the subjunctive (in our case, spective) the present stem, as we see, is used relatively, denoting the past in the
context of the past.