Imperatives and subjunctives in Romanian

•The imperative and the subjunctive have been both categorised as imperatives in Romanian.•They are two non-equivalent linguistic forms with different interactional functions.•The subjunctive serves as an account for the action expressed by the imperative.•The subjunctive is selected in circumstances of low epistemic status or stance.

This study concerns two grammatical constructions – the subjunctive and the imperative and their pragmatic functions. Although in Romanian they are generally regarded equally as ‘imperatives’, in this analysis of naturally occurring language use in Romanian meetings (in a higher education setting), I show that the subjunctive, despite being attributed an ‘imperative’ value, presents distinct syntactic and referential features in comparison to the imperative. These features allow the subjunctive form to express actions that the imperative cannot, because it is restricted to 2nd person reference. Moreover, within turns at talk containing both forms, the subjunctive functions as an account for the action expressed by the imperative, rather than being its substitute. Based on the methodology of conversation analysis, enabling us to examine grammatical forms in their wider sequential context of use, my findings indicate that for 2nd person reference the subjunctive–but not the (true) imperative–is used when the speaker/hearer displays a lower epistemic stance or status.