Languages & Linguistics
Imperative Verbs
Imperative verbs are used to give commands, instructions, or requests. They are typically in the base form of the verb and are directed at the listener to perform a specific action. Imperative verbs are a key component of language for conveying directives and are commonly used in everyday communication.
Written by Perlego with AI-assistance
Related key terms
1 of 5
3 Key excerpts on "Imperative Verbs"
eBook - PDF- Mark Jary, Mikhail Kissine(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
This survey will inform our discussion of English, a language which has been claimed by some not to have an imperative. We will argue that English does have an imperative. But our defin- ition of the imperative as a form whose sole prototypical function is to perform directive speech acts does leave open the possibility that there are languages that do not have this sentence type. We consider some such cases in section 3, paying particular attention to associated meth- odological issues, before going on, in section 4, to examine which forms commonly replace the imperative, also asking what properties they have in common with it. 1 DEFINING ‘IMPERATIVE’ 1.1 Sentence types Put yourself in the position of a linguist describing a ‘new language’, i.e. one that has never before been studied by linguists. (This is, by no means, a thought-experiment: around 90 per cent of languages spoken today across the world still await description; see, for instance, Levinson and Evans (2009).) In giving the meaning of the basic lexical vocabulary of that language, you will try to relate words to objects in the world. When it comes to describing some recurrent and specific sentence forms in that language, though, you will not try to relate these to objects in the world, but rather to things that speakers do when speaking, such as stating, requesting and asking. Just as we have a tendency to think of the meaning of words in terms of what they relate to in the world, so we tend to think of the meaning of kinds of sentences in terms of acts performed in speak- ing, or moves made in ‘language games’. That is, what one does in 10 the data attempting to delineate the different kinds of sentences in a certain language is to uncover systematic relationships between linguistic structures and conversational functions.
eBook - PDF- Dennis Campbell(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Eisenbrauns(Publisher)
35 Chapter 4 Imperative 4.1. Background The imperative is a form of manipulative speech act issued by the speaker to an ad- dressee in order to give a command or to give permission for a certain action. 1 In most languages, the imperative exhibits an extremely limited range of both agreement and tense-aspect-mood (TAM) marking (Gívon 1990: 313). Some languages use the zero- stem of the verb to indicate the imperative. For example, the second-person-singular imperative form of the Turkish verb “to go,” gitmek, is the bare stem git “Go!” 2 The use of the base form of the stem to indicate the imperative, while seen as a hallmark of this category, is not entirely typical among the world’s languages. 3 Regardless of the paucity of true ∅-stem forms, the imperative is still the “least marked of all major speech-acts” (Gívon 1990: 313). As will be demonstrated below, Hurrian conforms to this general model of imperatives, using a minimal though not bare-stem form. The imperative command does not just involve the giving of orders; it can also entail the giving of permission for the addressee to perform a particular action (Palmer 1998: 80). The imperative is clearly related to deontic modals since its function is to illicit ac- tion and not to impart a truth judgment. This function of the imperative creates certain limits. Given its nature, an imperative can only have future focus, even if this future event is to be carried out almost instantaneously with the command. 4 If there is any tense indication on the imperative verb, then it is expected to be some form of future, be it near or remote (Lyons 1977: 746–47). Because of this, imperatives cannot express actions meant to have been carried out in the past (Lyons 1977: 746). 4.1.1. Cross-Linguistic Analysis of the Imperative A characteristic of the imperative in many languages is that it typically comes in only two forms, the second-person singular and the second-person plural (Bybee 1985: 171).
eBook - PDF- Asier Alcázar, Mario Saltarelli(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
14 2 Imperatives across languages 2.0 Chapter overview Until recent years, cross-linguistic examination of imperative clauses was lim- ited to relatively modest data samples (Sadock and Zwicky 1985: 23 languages (extended sample: 32), Zhang 1990: 46 languages). 1 Later typological sur- veys have tapped into larger pools of data. In a survey of 495 languages, van der Auwera and Lejeune (2005a) investigate whether imperatives have dedi- cated forms (morphologically distinct from D&I). In a similar sample, van der Auwera and Lejeune (2005b) and van der Auwera (2010) study the negation of imperative clauses. On their part, van der Auwera et al. (2004) examine mark- edness relations in imperative-hortative paradigms in 376 languages. 2 Beyond particular research questions, two volumes have broadly surveyed imperatives and hortatives: the St. Petersburg survey (Xrakovskij 2001), an edited collec- tion, and Aikhenvald (2010), arguably the most comprehensive typological work to date. Taken together, these volumes and articles provide new reference points for a more exhaustive study of imperative syntax, morphology and semantics. Some of the earlier observations have been confirmed. For instance, that imperative subjects are optional. But a reassessment of some currently held assumptions is necessary. According to Xrakovskij (2001), imperatives are the most mor- phologically complex form in some languages. Aikhenvald (2010) finds that imperatives seem to have as many grammatical categories as D&I. Recall that imperatives have been assumed to be defective (1.1.1) on account of Imperative Verbs being bare roots or minimally inflected. Other important revisions in this chapter include the study of hortatives, the ban on true negative imperatives, and whether imperatives can lead to indirect speech act interpretations.
Index pages curate the most relevant extracts from our library of academic textbooks. They’ve been created using an in-house natural language model (NLM), each adding context and meaning to key research topics.
