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The volitional form is often translated as "let's," but that's a first person
plural imperative and I am not sure if that's the case for Japanese. In
Japanese dictionaries, one of the definitions for the volitional form is:

> 勧誘や婉曲な命令を表す。下に「か」「じゃないか」などが付いて，意味を強めることがある。 「いっしょにジョギングでもしよう」
> 「少しおなかがすいてきた。すしでも食べようか」

At first glance, it seems that it's a second person imperative such as in
expressions like 私と行こうよ. It would seem strange to order yourself to go
somewhere with yourself. However, it being a second person imperative doesn't
seem to work with other sentences such as みんなで行こうよ and 全員で行こうよ where "I" seems
to be included with みんな and 全員. This leaves me at a loss as to who the
勧誘や婉曲な命令 is directed to when the subject is omitted and it's just a verb. For
example, if a group of people were about to go somewhere and someone said 行こう,
is it a second person imperative with 私と omitted or a first person plural
imperative?
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2015-08-22T07:27:30.150
27559
2015-08-22T14:42:14.860
7712
question
grammar
Is よう used for first person or second person imperatives?
It's used for both, but the use as second person imperatives is a "hack". E.g.
one can say `ドア閉めようぜ` to a person, and it's clear that the other person closes
the door alone. Yet literary it would mean `Let's close the door (together)`.
Similarly, one can say `そういうこと言うのやめようよ` and it's clear the speaker isn't doing
that activity, but it doesn't quite mean `Don't say such things`, it's more
like `Let us (as society) not say such things`.

Same with `私と行こうよ`, `私と` is just elaborating on the activity suggested. If you
say `たかしと行こうよ` it's implied that the speaker comes as well, unless it's used
in the hacky way e.g.

> 「上の子がかわいそうじゃん、下の子と動物園とか連れて行こうよ」  
>  The older child would be sad. Let's (as a society) take both children to
> the zoo etc.

In the above example it can be that the speaker won't come. This hack is used
to avoid being rude/inconsiderate.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-22T14:42:14.860
27567
2015-08-22T14:42:14.860
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27559
answer