Imperatives and modals

Authors: Paul Portner

Publish Date: 2007/11/13

Volume: 15, Issue: 4, Pages: 351-383

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Abstract

Imperatives may be interpreted with many subvarieties of directive force for example as orders invitations or pieces of advice I argue that the range of meanings that imperatives can convey should be identified with the variety of interpretations that are possible for nondynamic root modals what I call ‘priority modals’ including deontic bouletic and teleological readings This paper presents an analysis of the relationship between imperatives and priority modals in discourse which asserts that just as declaratives contribute to the Common Ground and thus provide information relevant to the interpretation of epistemic modals in subsequent discourse imperatives contribute to another component of the discourse context the addressee’s ToDo List which serves as a contextual resource for the interpretation of priority modals This analysis predicts that the interpretation of imperatives and modals in discourse is constrained in surprising ways these predictions are borne out

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