A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis of the English Imperative

With special reference to Japanese imperatives

Hidemitsu Takahashi | Hokkaido University

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027223890 | EUR 90.00 | USD 135.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027274762 | EUR 90.00 | USD 135.00

This volume offers the first comprehensive description of English imperatives made from a Cognitive Linguistic perspective. It proposes a new way of explaining the meaning and function of the imperative independently of illocutionary act classifications, which allows for quantifying the strength of imperative force in terms of parameters and numerical values. Furthermore, the book applies the theory of Construction Grammar to account for the felicity of imperatives in complex sentences. The model of description explains explicitly a wide range of phenomena, including frequency of use, prototypical vs. non-prototypical uses of the English imperative and the choice between longer vs. shorter directives including the imperative. A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis of the English Imperative: With Special Reference to Japanese Imperatives is intended for both researchers and students interested in the English imperative and Directive Speech Acts at large and for the linguists working within the Cognitive Linguistics and/or Construction Grammar approach.

[Human Cognitive Processing, 35] 2012. xvii, 242 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.35

Table of Contents

List of figures | p. ix

List of tables | p. xi

Abbreviations | p. xiii

Acknowledgments | pp. xv–xvii

1. Introduction | pp. 1–20

2. Observing English imperatives in action | pp. 21–56

3. The meaning of the English imperative | pp. 57–92

4. Accounting for some of the findings in Chapter 2 and the choice between imperatives and indirect directives | pp. 93–119

5. Mixed imperative constructions: Passive, progressive, and perfective imperatives in English | pp. 121–135

6. Conditional imperatives in English | pp. 137–171

7. English imperatives in concessive clauses | pp. 173–196

8. Japanese imperatives | pp. 197–219

9. Conclusions and prospects | pp. 221–224

Data sources | p. 237

Name index | pp. 239–240

Subject index | pp. 241–242

“This book is most welcome for a number of reasons: as a detailed illustration of applying the descriptive and theoretical notions of cognitive linguistics; for its success in integrating multiple methods and multiple theoretical approaches; and as a comprehensive description of the English imperative. It achieves a broader and deeper understanding of this phenomenon, being especially informative due to comparison with Japanese.”

Ronald W. Langacker , University of California, San Diego

“The framework proposed in this work is a valuable addition to the field of Cognitive Linguistics. It provides insight into the elements by which imperative utterances can be classified, along with tools for comparing these utterances cross-linguistically. Ultimately, such a framework can serve as an important basis for further research in the area of imperative constructions.”

William W. Kruger, Lincoln, NE, USA, on Linguist List 23-1697 (2012)

“[...] this volume provides an interesting multi-faceted approach to functional, semantic and formal aspects of the imperative in English (and to a lesser extent in Japanese). By looking at the same object of study from different angles the reader arrives at a better understanding of the imperative both in terms of the attested behaviour and the motivations behind it.”

Bernard De Clerck, University College Ghent, in Functions of Language, Vol. 20:1 (2013).

Cited by (21)

Cited by 21 other publications

Order by:

Mori, Hideki

2024. Characteristics of the X ie imperative expression: three criteria for the classification of imperatives. Journal of Japanese Linguistics 40:1 ► pp. 31 ff.

Perevozchikova, Tatiana

2024. Reflexives and politeness: possessive pronouns in Russian imperative sentences. Russian Linguistics 48:1

Holvoet, Axel

2023. Towards an enhanced semantic map for imperatives. STUF - Language Typology and Universals 76:4 ► pp. 635 ff.

Lander, Yury & Irina Bagirokova

2022. West Circassian Imperative-Optative System: A Study in a Prototype-Based Organisation of a Grammatical Domain. Syntaxe & Sémantique N° 22:1 ► pp. 57 ff.

Li, Yisong & Changsong Wang

2022. A window into interpersonal relations inJane Eyrefrom the perspective of imperatives. Text & Talk 42:2 ► pp. 255 ff.

Chang, Miao-Hsia & Ún-giân Iûnn

2021. A corpus-based study of directives in Taiwanese Southern Min. Concentric. Studies in Linguistics 47:2 ► pp. 300 ff.

GÓRALCZYK, IWONA & JOANNA ŁOZIŃSKA

2021. Yoga instructions in Polish and Russian as directive speech acts: a cognitive linguistic perspective. Language and Cognition 13:4 ► pp. 613 ff.

Pérez Fernández, Sofía, Pedro Gras & Frank Brisard

2021. Semantic polyfunctionality and constructional networks. Constructions and Frames 13:1 ► pp. 82 ff.

MINO, TAKASHI

2020. A CONSTRUCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE <i>THERE SPEAK</i> EXPRESSION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CONTEXT. ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 36:2 ► pp. 145 ff.

Pérez-Hernández, Lorena

2019. From research to the textbook. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics 32:1 ► pp. 248 ff.

Van Olmen, Daniël

2018. Reproachatives and imperatives. Linguistics 56:1 ► pp. 115 ff.

Xiang, Dajun & Chengyu Liu

2018. The Semantics of MOOD and the Syntax of the Let’s-construction in English: A Corpus-based Cardiff Grammar Approach. Australian Journal of Linguistics 38:4 ► pp. 549 ff.

Sansiñena, María Sol

2017. Eliciting evidence of functional differences. In Imperatives and Directive Strategies [Studies in Language Companion Series, 184],

Swearingen, Andrew

2017. Crossing the categorial divide. In Imperatives and Directive Strategies [Studies in Language Companion Series, 184],

Van Olmen, Daniël & Simone Heinold

2017. Imperatives and directive strategies from a functional-typological perspective. In Imperatives and Directive Strategies [Studies in Language Companion Series, 184],

Vassilaki, Evgenia

2017. Chapter 4. Cognitive motivation in the linguistic realization of requests in Modern Greek. In Studies in Figurative Thought and Language [Human Cognitive Processing, 56], ► pp. 106 ff.

Heine, Bernd

2016. On non-finiteness and canonical imperatives. In Finiteness and Nominalization [Typological Studies in Language, 113], ► pp. 243 ff.

Baicchi, Annalisa

2015. Conceptual metaphor in the complex dynamics of illocutionary meaning. Review of Cognitive Linguistics 13:1 ► pp. 106 ff.

Sansiñena, María Sol, Hendrik De Smet & Bert Cornillie

2015. Displaced directives: Subjunctive free-standing que-clauses vs. imperatives in Spanish. Folia Linguistica 49:1

Pennock-Speck, Barry & Miguel Fuster-Márquez

2014. Imperatives in voice-overs in British TV commercials: ‘Get this, buy that, taste the other’. Discourse & Communication 8:4 ► pp. 411 ff.

[no author supplied]

2012. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. English Language and Linguistics 16:3 ► pp. 551 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 7 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Subjects