Topics in imperatives

This paper examines the left and right periphery in Dutch imperatives. Rightperipheral objects in Dutch imperatives are argued to arise from the interaction of leftward topicalisation into the left periphery, inversion and topic drop, licensed under movement of the verb to the Topic head. An examination of reconstruction effects establishes the movement characteristics of right-peripheral objects. Differences between the reduced left periphery of Dutch (only a dropped topic is allowed to precede the imperative verb) and German (one overt topic may precede the imperative) are argued to be due to the landing site of the imperative verb form, and slightly different pied-piping confi gurations which allow an imperative verb to “type” imperative force.