(^170) Chapter 9 Clause type: asking, exclaiming, and directing
(^4) Imperatives and directives
4.1 The form of imperative clauses
The major syntactic features distinguishing imperative clauses from
declaratives are as stated in [24]. Examples are given in [25].
[24] A 2nd person subject is omissible.
ii The verb is in the plain form.
III Auxiliary do is required in verbal negation even with be.[2 5 ] DECLARATIVE IMPERATIVE
a. Yo u told her the truth. b. Te ll her the truth.(^11) a. Yo u are more tolerant. b. Be more tolerant.
III a. Everybody fo llows me. b. Everybody fo llow me.
iv a. Yo u aren 't impetuous. b. Don 't be impetuous.
In [ia] the subject is obligatory, whereas [ib] illustrates the usual form of imper
atives, with the subject you understood. It's possible to include you (You tell her
the truth!), but this is much less common.
Examples [ii] and [iii] show the verb-form difference: are and fo llows are pres
ent tense forms; be and fo llow are plain forms. As we noted in Ch. 3, § 1.2, plain
present tense forms and plain forms are nearly always the same; as a result, the
verb in an imperative is distinct from that of a present tense declarative in just
two cases: with the verb be as in [ii], and with a 3rd person singular subject, like
the everybody of [iii].
In [iv] we see the difference with respect to auxiliary do: it's not permitted in the
declarative version but it's required in the imperative.
4.2 First person imperatives
Most imperative clauses have a 2nd person subject, either overtly
expressed as you or understood that way. In some cases 3rd person subjects are
found, like everybody in [25iii] (it means "everybody among you"). But there is also
a distinct subtype of imperative construction understood as 1st person plural. It is
marked by a specialised use of the verb let, differing from the ordinary verb let
("allow") in four ways:
[26] ORDINARY LET 1ST PERSON IMPERATIVE LET
a. They let us have our ball back. b. Let's get our ball back.
11 a. He didn 't let us attend the meeting. b. Don 't let's attend the meeting.
III a. He let us not attend the meeting. b. Let's not attend the meeting.
The specialised let CANNOT HAVE A SUBJECT (cf. *You let's get our ball back). It's
the verb FOLLOWING let that is understood with a 1st person plural subject.
There's a clear meaning difference between [iia] and [iiia]: [iia] means "He
refused us permission to attend" (let is WITHIN the scope of negation), while