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Inlinguistics,hortativemodalities (/ˈhɔːrtətɪv/ ⓘ;abbreviatedHORT) areverbal expressions used by the speaker to encourage or discourage an action. Different hortatives can be used to express greater or lesser intensity, or the speaker's attitude, for or against it.
Hortative modalities signal the speaker's encouragement or discouragement toward the addressee's bringing about the action of an utterance.
The term hortative dates to 1576, fromLate Latinhortatorius "encouraging, cheering", fromhortatus, past participle ofhortari "exhort, encourage", intensive ofhoriri "urge, incite, encourage". When encouraging others it becomesexhortative while when including the speaker it becomescohortative.
Hortative modalities share semantic and lexical similarities with other modalities, which can lead to confusion between them. Also, hortative constructions rarely have forms that are uniquely their own. TheEnglish expressionLet's, a contraction oflet us, is one such construction. However,let us is used for other functions:
The modal '(have) got' is used to express obligations, but is also hortative:
Further ambiguity may result when hortative formations have many words or appear as adverbially-modified forms of other modalities:
That construction consists of might (a modal of possibility) + not (the negative marker) + want (avolitiveclass II modal). Forms such as this one are often misconstrued as other modalities further modified (in this case, volition negated and modified for possibility).
Many languages have imperative-hortative systems in which modalities dealing with commands and encouragement are grouped together. That is not the case in English and results in some disagreement among linguists.[who?]
Imperatives and hortatives both involve the expression of a wish of the speaker about a future state of affairs. In that respect, they are likeoptatives, but in contrast to optatives, they convey an appeal to the addressee(s) to help make the future state of affairs true. If the person in control of the desired state of affairs is the addressee(s), the utterance is animperative. In any other case, it is a hortative. Consider the following examples:
(1) illustrates an optative. It expresses a wish or hope of the speaker, but there is no appeal to the addressee to make it true. (2) and (3) also express a wish of the speaker, but in both cases, there is an appeal to the addressee to help make it true, with the desired future state of affairs specified as that of someone singing. Note that the person(s) supposed to sing is/are the addressee(s) in (2), thus making it a command. In (3), however, the intended singer(s) is/are the addressee(s) together with the speaker, thus effecting the modality of mutual encouragement that the speaker and the addressee(s) are to perform the action.[2]
