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[2]Ghbrhsnsq<psv> cdth[ jltzkf kbcmbv cfkjgjv, z cjuhtkcz<pf> , ecyek<pf> b ghjcyekcz<pf> yf lheujq ltym pljhjdsv.

Covered by a fox coat over the quilt, I warmed up, fell asleep and awoke the next day healthy.

The mother of the narrator feared that her boy might fall ill as a result of the chill he experienced during the journey. Here in [2] the narrator describes how he awoke in a state of health, a fortunate result that runs counter to the future that his mother anticipated. Therein is the real information value. The information is not only the state that is asserted to hold, but the evaluation of that state against alternatives that had been anticipated. Broadly, modality is any concern with alternatives that are mediated by an authority.

Predicates, then, report histories, which can be static or changing around a contextual occasion (aspect) relative to expectations (modality); the history and the contextual occasion are positioned with respect to the time of speech (tense).

The discussion below is oriented around the categories of tense, aspect, and mood that are explicitly expressed by means of morphology, but at the same time, it is to be understood that they fit into larger, and interconnected, notions of aspectuality, temporality, and modality.

6.2 Mood

6.2.1 Modality in general

Modality, in general, is a consideration of alternatives, as viewed by some authority or speaker. Alternative realities are legion. There are various reasons for considering alternatives in addition to the world we take to be real.

(a) M O D A L I T Y O F E P I S T E M O L O G Y : Although the speaker seems to be the ultimate authority for knowledge, the speaker in a sense is the addressee of external stimuli, memory, other speakers. The speaker is not always an omnipotent authority, and may indicate some uncertainty or attenuation of knowledge about the world. Included under modality of epistemology are verbs of seeming, appearance, and the phenomenon of reported speech.

(b) M O D A L I T Y O F R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y : As speakers we believe that the world is not just the way it is accidentally, spontaneously, but that the world is the way it is because of some responsible authority. Authority can be layered. For example, in using an imperative, there are two layers: the speaker acts as authority to decide how the world should be, and then cajoles or implores the addressee to become an authority and change the world from its current state. In deontic modality (etymologically, the modality of “binding”), expressed by modal

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predicates such as yƒlj ‘necessary’, ghbqn∫cm ‘have occasion to’, kéxit ‘better’, lj´k;ty (ljk;yƒ, etc.) ‘is obligated’, there are likewise two layers. The person to whom the obligation is directed is ‘bound’ to take responsibility for the world. And that responsibility derives from a higher authority, a generalized code of possibility and obligation.

(c) SI T U A T I O N A L M O D A L I T Y : When speakers and addressees are not acting as authorities, one is left with modality in which one situation of the world interacts with another: one situation is consistent with another (despite expectations), or causes another, or excludes another. All narrative is about one event making another possible; argumentation involves demonstrating how one fact makes another fact necessary. Situational modality is often implicit; it becomes explicit in conditional structures.

These are the general types of modality. Morphologically, Russian can be said to distinguish three moods: realis mood (past and present and future tenses), imperative, and an all-purpose irrealis (subjunctive) modality. The infinitive, although it is non-finite, could also be considered a mood. Irrealis mood is expressed not by inflectional morphology, but by means of the particle ,s. This particle most often follows immediately after the verb, and a finite verb must be in the past tense:

[3]<elm Ctht;f ;bd, jy cjxbybk<pst> ,s j yfitv c,jhbot cvtiyjq hfccrfp. Were Serezha still alive, he would write a droll story about our gathering.

Put after the verb, ,s focuses on the alternative states of the world, on what might happen. But the particle need not occur directly after or attached to the verb; it can be used with a conjunction or an argument (both in [4]):

[4]Tckb ,s z ,sk<pst> <kjrjv, z ,s cjxbybk<pst> ghj ytt ≤Ytpyfrjvre≥

If I were Blok, I would write “The Stranger” about her.

When ,s is put after an argument, the alternative realities that are entertained depend on properties of that argument; thus [4] hangs on the identity of the speaker.

Although ,s requires the past tense when it is used with a finite verb, it does not require the past tense when it is used to attenuate the force of modality, in the free infinitive construction (Vyt ,s bpdbybnmcz ‘perhaps I should apologize’) and with non-verbal predicates (kéxit ,s ‘would be better’, yƒlj ,s

‘would be necessary’, vj´;yj ,s ‘perhaps’ -- j,j dctv эnjv vj;yj ,s yfgbcfnm yjdtkke ‘about that one might write a whole novella’). The particle has long been used together with the conjunction xnj ‘that’, resulting in a univerbated irrealis conjunction xnj,s. Xnj,s occurs either with finite verbs, which must appear in the past tense, or with infinitives.

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6.2.2 Mands and the imperative

By using an imperative, the speaker acts as an authority and requests the addressee to become an authority and take responsibility for making the future world match the speaker’s wishes.

Perfectives predominate in positive imperatives, since in using imperatives the speaker as a rule asks for a definitive change of the world:

[5]Djpmvbnt<pf imv> hjvfy Pjkz ≤Xhtdj Gfhb;f≥ b gjxbnfqnt<pf imv> . Take Zola’s novel Ventre de Paris and read it.

[6]Pfqlbnt<pf imv> xthtp nhb lyz! Come back in three days!

[7]Jq, ,evf;rb, lf jyb ghbujlbnmcz vjuen, ns b[ pfceym<pf imv> d rjhj,jxre. Oh, the papers -- they might come in handy, stick them in this box.

Also by general rule, negative imperatives are normally imperfective:

[8]Yj tckb vjtuj ve;f b vjtuj csyf jnghfdzn lfktrj, yfv yt yf xnj ,eltn ;bnm, vs nf,frthre ghjlflbv. Yt ,thbnt<if imv> tt, gj;fkeqcnf.

But if my husband and son are sent off, we won’t have anything to live on, and we’ll sell the snuff-box. Don’t take it, please.

[9]Yt cnfdmnt<if imv> gecne/ ,enskre yf cnjk! Don’t put an empty bottle on the table!

While this is the usual distribution of aspect in the imperative, the opposite, chiasmic, combinations occur. A negated perfective imperative indicates a warning against an event the speaker considers imminent: unless alternative strategies are adopted, the speaker expects the undesirable positive result to develop:2

[10]-- E dfc tcnm gbcnjktn? Yt dplevfqnt<pf imv> pfcnhtkbnmcz!

--So you have a pistol? Don’t even think of shooting yourself!

[11]Ghjdj;fz vtyz, Dkflbvbh crfpfk:

--Cvjnhb yt jchfvbcm<pf imv> , yf,thbcm<pf imv> yf[fkmcndf, d ckexft xtuj dhb, f vtyz yt gjldtlb<pf imv> .

As he accompanied me, Vladimir said:

--Watch you don’t do something shameful, act with impudence, if there’s a problem, lie, and don’t give me away.

Imperfectives can be used as positive imperatives to express the usual senses of the imperfective, for example, a generalized action (dh∫ in [11]) or habit ([12]):

[12]Gj enhfv jnrhsdfq<if imv> jryj.

Please open the window in the morning.

2 Kuˇcera 1985.

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Imperfective imperatives can also be used in certain pragmatic situations in which the speaker has in mind a single occasion, not a generalized activity.3 The speaker can use an imperfective imperative to issue an invitation:

[13]Pf[jlbnt<if imv> , hfpltdfqntcm<if imv> ! Come on in, take off your things.

Or to grant permission, when the addressee hesitates;

[14]-- Vj;yj z ghble? -- Perhaps I might come over? -- Ghb[jlb<if imv> . -- [Indeed, do] come.

Or to insist on an activity, when the addressee hesitates and there is a clear and present danger that the activity might not be performed:

[15] <thbnt<if imv> , yt cjvytdfqntcm<if imv> !

Go ahead and take some, don’t hesitate!
[16] B: Jyb ;t etp;f/n. Vj;tn, jyb vfibye	They are moving away. Maybe
ghjlflen?	they’ll sell their car?
Y: Yfdthyjt, jyb tt ,elen ghjlfdfnm.	No doubt they’ll try to sell it.
B: Yfnfif, ghjlfdfqnt<if imv> tt vyt.	Natasha, sell it to me.
[17] Ceg ujnjd. Cybvfq<if imv> !
The soup is ready. Remove it.

These contexts are alike in that, in all, the speaker anticipates that a certain activity is already established as a possibility, but is nevertheless not a certainty. What is at issue for the speaker is first and foremost whether the activity will occur at all, as opposed to not occurring. The imperfective is motivated by the focus on the binary question of the existence of the activity rather than on change and result.

Imperatives, self-evidently, are oriented to the addressee, and so are implicitly second person. Something like first-person imperatives can be formed by using the present form with a hortative intonation; the affix -nt makes an inclusive plural ([18]):

[18]-- Bltvnt<1pl+2pl prs> c yfvb d rbyj, ujdjhzn, jxtym bynthtcysq abkmv. -- Come with us to the movies, they say, there’s an interesting film.

Other constructions similar to imperatives can be formed by combining certain frozen imperative forms with verbs (often present-tense perfective) in any person.

3Paducheva 1996 ([12], [13], [14], [15], [17]) first distinguishes three parameters: initial phase, immediacy, and contextual dependence, and then lists specific pragmatic situations. The general condition is insistence on the existence of the activity in the face of uncertainty (Timberlake 1998).