Authors:
- Gives a uniform analysis for all occurences of the individuated form type
- Takes into account cross-linguistic findings
- Offers an explanation and application of clear criteria for identification of imperatives
- Draws on parallels to other natural language phenomena (e.g. context-dependence of modals)
Part of the book series: Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy (SLAP, volume 88)
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
Imperative clauses are recognized as one of the major clause types alongside those known as declarative and interrogative. Nevertheless, they are still an enigma in the study of meaning, which relies largely on either the concept of truth conditions or the concept of information growth—neither of which are easily applied to imperatives. This book puts forward a fresh perspective. It analyzes imperatives in terms of modalized propositions, and identifies an additional, presuppositional, meaning component that makes an assertive interpretation inappropriate. The author shows how these two elements can help explain the varied effects imperatives have, depending on their usage context.
Imperatives have been viewed as elusive components of language because they have a range of functions that makes them difficult to unify theoretically. This fresh view of the semantics-pragmatics interface allows for a uniform semantic analysis while accounting for the pragmatic versatility of imperatives. Â
Reviews
From the reviews:
“This book provides an analysis of imperatives that aims to unify the study of their linguistic form with that of their various potential uses. … A benefit of this book is that linguists of different areas may find it useful. Because it includes in-depth syntactic analyses of imperatives, as well as semantic and pragmatic ones, different chapters target different audiences. Most linguists interested in imperatives would likely find the whole book helpful … .” (Mary Johnson, The Linguist List, February, 2013)Authors and Affiliations
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, Sprachwissenschaftliches Seminar, Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany
Magdalena Kaufmann
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Interpreting Imperatives
Authors: Magdalena Kaufmann
Series Title: Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2269-9
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
Hardcover ISBN: 978-94-007-2268-2Published: 27 October 2011
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-007-3757-0Published: 29 November 2013
eBook ISBN: 978-94-007-2269-9Published: 26 October 2011
Series ISSN: 0924-4662
Series E-ISSN: 2215-034X
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XII, 272
Topics: Semantics, Philosophy of Language