Representation of Types of Imperative Mood in Persian Language:Cognitive Approach

The present study dealt with the imperative mood in Persian fiction based on cognitive linguistics approach. The study aimed to explore the imperative mood at sentence and extra-sentence level. Research hypothesis was based on the distinctions between the form and meaning components of imperative mood and its distribution in various language structures. According to cognitive linguistics approach, language is a part of cognitive system and the syntactic structure of a language can't be simply studied independent of semantic and functional considerations. The text samples were derived from eight contemporary novels written by four male and four female writers through simple random sampling method. The analysis of language samples was done through descriptive and qualitative method and showed that the imperative mood could appear at various language forms and levels. According to cognitive linguistics approach, if data analysis was just done based on form at sentence level, the results will be challenging and some of data would be removed in terms of form and meaning since in some data nouns, adjectives, and adverbs alone express the meaning of imperative mood. As a result, following cognitive approach and considering all language layers we attempted to gain a better understanding of imperative mood. As such, challenges and ambiguities in determining the mood type at above-sentence level would be reduced to some extent.
Extended Abstract
The present paper dealt with the analysis of imperative mood based on cognitive linguistics approach. The aim of this paper was to describe and determine the criterion of understanding imperative mood in different language levels and what is beyond it. The research hypotheses were based on the distinctions between the form and meaning components in imperative mood and its distribution in the language corpus of contemporary Persian fiction. In this study, the different categories of imperative mood in Persian language were analyzed through descriptive and qualitative methods. The corpus contained text samples from eight different novel stories written by four men and four women writers. In order to limit the influence of confounding variables in language use, the corpus was selected from the same language style and context to some extent.
Cognitive Linguistics subsumes that language is an integral facet of cognition which reflects the interaction of social, cultural, psycho-logical, communicative and functional considerations, and which can only be understood in the context of a realistic view of acquisition, cognitive development and mental processing. It seeks insofar as possible to explicate language structure in terms of the other facets of cognition on which it draws, as well as the communicative function it serves.
Considering preliminary nature of language corpus, it seems that imperative mood could be easily observed in situational context such as different kinds of stories, but it was not as simple as it might be imagined. Because of existing distinction between form and meaning, different influential factors need to be considered from all aspects of language levels so that the results to be clear and acceptable.
The studies done represent that verbal mood is divided into two general sets: indicative mood and non-indicative mood like imperative and subjunctive mood. Generally speaking, imperative mood is commonly used to express a command, order, request, suggestion, etc. In some languages like Persian, the form and meaning of imperative mood can be observed in imperative verbs, modal verbs, also some nouns, adjectives and adverbs may express imperative mood. An imperative sentence is defined as a sentence which has no surface subject (apart from some specific contexts that subject appears to convey novel meaning which might be studied), and either a main verb or emphatic do in the base form. In most languages, it usually appears without any modal verbs. Crystal (2004:227) remarks that an imperative usage refers to verb forms or sentence, clause types typically used in the expression of command, e.g. Go away.
Formally, imperative clauses, as Bibber et al. (1999, p. 219) comment, are characterized by the lack of a subject, the use of the base form of the verb, and the absence of modals as well as tense and aspect markers as in:
Get off the table.
Don't forget about the deposit.
According to the existing researches done, imperative mood is formally distinguishable from other sentence types of the language in which they appear: i.e., they have distinctive morphology, syntax and main verb. In general, the grammatical status of imperative sentences is puzzling, syntactically and semantically.  Imperative verbs have little or no inflectional morphology in data observed; that is why, it is very challengeable issue although data analysis from cognitive view show that the base of the verb in the form of imperative structure has a high frequency
The analysis of language samples in this study indicated that recognizing imperative mood does not just rely on considering the command of doing an action and the request of something based on modal verbs and verbal mood. Data analysis showed that even some nouns, adjectives and adverbs might do this function; therefore, the other aspects of language in higher language levels should be paid attention so as to be understand the distinction of imperative mood from indicative and subjunctive better.
According to cognitive linguistics approach which is the theoretical framework of this study, language is a part of cognitive system and the syntactic structure of a language can't be separately studied, but all influential factors could be considered from different language aspects. The results showed that the base of the verb had a high frequency in the corpus, but the form and meaning may show the other kinds of mood, thus recognizing imperative mood depends on different language constituents in context. As a result, all language layers, forms and meanings should be taken into account and analyzed cognitively in describing and explaining of imperative mood.