please classify " Let's go"

Question

What does let us go classyfies as?? Thanx for your help

Philip · Accepted Answer

First-person-plural imperative.  It's more of a suggestion than a command.

BillJ · Answer

AnonymousWhat does let us go classyfies as?? Thanx for your help

All the properties of "Let's go" suggest it is a special idiomatic imperative clause. For example, it cannot have a subject, and it is negated with a fixed "don't" that is understood inside the clause: "Don't let's go" means "Let's not go". There is of course an ordinary imperative reading for "Let us go", where it means "Please permit us to go": but the meaning is different: the idiomatic "Let's go" can ONLY mean "Let's you and me go", or Let's all go, you included"; it cannot mean what the ordinary imperative means, which would typically be "Please go about your business and permit me and him to go; stop interfering with us”.

If you want to classify it, it's called a "let-imperative clause", or more specifically a "1st person inclusive let-imperative clause", which is a subtype of imperative clause.

BillJ

please classify " Let's go"

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