Part of
Imperatives and Directive StrategiesEdited by Daniël Van Olmen and Simone Heinold
[Studies in Language Companion Series 184] 2017
► pp. 159–180
In this paper, I examine directives uttered by yoga teachers to their students during classes, with special attention to their frequency of use and their degree of modification. Yoga instructional discourse is shown to be characterized by a wide range of directives, from bald imperatives to modified forms, including indirect directives. I demonstrate that these different types of directive have a characteristic pattern of distribution within the yoga instructional practice context. Indirect directives include present and future descriptions of actions rather than instructions to perform them and various kinds of modifications, including phrases that echo yoga ideology.