The <b>prohibitive</b> is a negative imperative, as in English <i>Don't do that!</i> <br><br>A ‘yes’ value indicates that the language in question forms prohibitives by adding sentential negation to a form of the verb which is <b>not</b> used for the imperative. Spanish is such a language, since it uses sentential negation <i>no</i>, but instead of the imperative form, as in <i>canta!</i> ‘sing!’ it uses a subjunctive 2sg form, as in <i>No cantes</i> ‘not sing.SBJV.PRES.2sg’ (van der Auwera et al. 2008). 
<br><br>Some languages have more than one prohibitive strategy. In such cases, languages are marked ‘yes’ for each prohibitive strategy used. For example, Icelandic can form the prohibitive by adding sentential negation <i>ekki</i> ‘not’ to the imperative, as in <i>far-ðu ekki</i> ‘go.STEM-2sg.CL not’ for ‘Do not go!’ In addition, Icelandic can form the prohibitive by adding sentential negation to the infinitive form of the verb, as in <i>Ekki fara!</i> ‘not go.INF’. In the latter strategy, sentential negation is added to a non-imperative verb form (i.e. the infinitive), so Icelandic would be valued ‘yes’ for this property. 

<br><br><b>Reference</b><br>

van der Auwera, Johan, Ludo Lejeune & Valentin Goussev. 2008. The Prohibitive.
In Haspelmath et al. (2008), chapter 73.
Available online at <a href=â€http://wals.info/feature/73â€> http://wals.info/feature/73</a href>.
