<p>I am building a conlang that is heavily based on the Haskell programming language, and I was thinking about how sentences work. Let me call this conlang <strong>Jeksa</strong> for the moment.</p>
<p>Jeksa models every sentence as an action to modify the real world — Haskell's <code>RealWorld</code>, aka the state of the <code>IO</code> monad.</p>
<p>Then I found that every sentence is a command, at least under this model. In addition to usual imperatives, declarative sentences are commands to let them know, and interrogative sentences are commands to let them tell. To demonstrate:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[Usual sentence] One plus one equals two.<br />
[In this model] <strong>You gotta know that</strong> one plus one equals two.</p>
<p>[Usual sentence] Does one plus one equal three?<br />
[In this model] <strong>You gotta tell me whether</strong> one plus one equals three.</p>
<p>[Usual sentence] Who told you that BS?<br />
[In this model] <strong>You gotta tell me</strong> who told you that BS.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To paraphrase, declarative sentences are attempts of modifying the listener's knowledge, and interrogative sentences are requests to fetch the listener's knowledge.</p>
<p>However, I've never seen a natural language that actually goes well with this model. Is there any?</p>

<natural-languages>
Is there a language whose every sentence is a command?
# Is there a language whose every sentence is a command?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-01-02)

I am building a conlang that is heavily based on the Haskell programming language, and I was thinking about how sentences work. Let me call this conlang **Jeksa** for the moment.

Jeksa models every sentence as an action to modify the real world — Haskell's `RealWorld`, aka the state of the `IO` monad.

Then I found that every sentence is a command, at least under this model. In addition to usual imperatives, declarative sentences are commands to let them know, and interrogative sentences are commands to let them tell. To demonstrate:

> [Usual sentence] One plus one equals two.  
> [In this model] **You gotta know that** one plus one equals two.
>
> [Usual sentence] Does one plus one equal three?  
> [In this model] **You gotta tell me whether** one plus one equals three.
>
> [Usual sentence] Who told you that BS?  
> [In this model] **You gotta tell me** who told you that BS.

To paraphrase, declarative sentences are attempts of modifying the listener's knowledge, and interrogative sentences are requests to fetch the listener's knowledge.

However, I've never seen a natural language that actually goes well with this model. Is there any?

**Tags:** natural-languages

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## 0 answers

