Mandative constructions in Middle English

1 Mandative constructions: Delimiting the object of the study Mandative constructions express that a certain action (should) be performed or a certain state be achieved. In terms of illocutionary acts, they are directives. They can be independent or dependent. The verbal syntagm of independent mandative constructions is either in the imperative or in the subjunctive mood (e.g. close the window, peace be with you), or it consists of a modal expression (e.g. papers should be submitted before the end of this year). The mandative force relies purely on the verb form. Dependent mandative constructions are governed by a suasive verb, and they have the form of that-clauses or infinitive constructions. The conjunction that can be deleted, and the prototypical realisation of the verbal syntagm is by a modal auxiliary (usually should) or a subjunctive form.1 Since the mandative force is carried by the combination of suasive verb and the dependent clause, the verbal syntagm of the latter can also be realised by an indicative form. The object of this paper are dependent mandative constructions. Their realisation possibilities in Present-Day English (PDE) are illustrated in Quirk et al. (1985: 1182f.) by examples (1)–(4):