This Jussive!

The jussive mood, sometimes referred to as the imperative mood, is one that we use every day in Modern English. It is declamatory—meaning it's meant to issue a directive or an order. Every language has some form of this. French is notorious for putting in the "vous" or "you" in these commands such as, "Allez-vous en", meaning, "Go away" or literally, "Go (you) away".

You probably can't tell that something is in the jussive form whenever it might be used with its "you" form in a normal sentence, but I bet you use it. Here's an example:

Example: You have a good day, sir. (meaning, "Have a good day, sir")

While you may not notice it in this form, it can be noticed in forms like, "You be the judge", meaning, "Be the judge". There are also third person forms wherein it can be seen such as below:

Example: Everyone stay calm. It's only an aftershock.

Here, one can see that this is a jussive form—not to be confused with the subjunctive mood, which normally takes us either out of reality or puts uncertainty in our minds. For those interested, there is something called the jussive subjunctive, which can be seen from time to time. The jussive subjunctive is tricky in that it can be removed from the subjunctive by adding the modal, "shall" in most cases. "Shall" can also be used to create the imperative mood such as in, "You shall do as I say", which borders on the indicative and jussive and is sometimes considered as both. Here are some examples of the jussive subjunctive:

Example: I order that you (shall) surrender your troops.

Example: I command that he (shall) not waver from his position.

Example: You (shall) see to it that nothing (shall) go wrong!

Example: I want you to make sure that it (shall) be working next time.

Example: I demand that you (shall) show yourself, you insolent swine!

I think I have spoken about this before—the idea that "shall" should be in places where "will" dominates in spoken Modern English. For example, the semantic difference whenever your mother might say, "You will do your laundry" versus "You shall do your laundry". Here, in the former, a semiotician would say that your mother is just telling you her prediction of the future whereas the latter is a command from your mother or some prognostication of a future event—i.e. Nostradamus. This is one of the fascinating things about semiotics—one can really twist anyone's words so that they no longer mean what they once were intended to mean.