DIRECTIVES: GETTING PEOPLE TO CARRY OUT ACTIONS
DIRECTIVES AND THE IMPERATIVE
Although the basic speech act associated with imperative clauses is commonly held to be that of expressing a command, the imperative is used more frequently in English for less mandatory purposes. It can imply attitudes and intentions that are not actually formulated in the clause, and which can only be interpreted through a knowledge of the background context and of the relationships that exist between the persons involved.
In fact, the difference between commands and other directives such as requests, invitations and advice is, as we have already seen, not clear-cut. It depends on such factors as the relative authority of the speaker towards the addressee and whether the addressee is given the option of complying or not with the directive: in the case of a command there is no option, whereas with a request there is.
Other factors include which of the two interlocutors is judged to benefit from the fulfilment of the action: a piece of advice benefits the addressee, whereas a request benefits the speaker. Good wishes (Get well soon!) rarely refer to agentive acts and so aren’t directives.
Politeness is also a major factor. The more the action is likely to benefit the addressee, the more socially acceptable an imperative will be. Otherwise, an imperative is likely to sound abrupt or demanding in English.
Consider the following cost–benefit scale on which the imperative is kept constant. The utterances at the lower end of the scale sound more polite than those at the top, even though there are no specific markers of politeness present:
Other factors override politeness, however, such as emergency (Help!) or attention- seeking in conversation (Look, what I meant was . . .); the imperative can also be used when the speaker and hearer are carrying out a joint task (Pass me the spanner), when the hearer’s interests are put first (Don’t worry! Cheer up! Take care!), and even as a discourse initiator or topic introducer (Guess who I saw this morning at the bank).
The speech-act force of imperatives has, therefore, to be worked out by the addressee from the logical meaning of the sentence combined with the inferences made on the basis of context and the speaker–hearer relationship. Isolated examples can simply illustrate some typical interpretations:
Get out of here! command
Keep off the grass. prohibition
Please close the window! request
Don’t tell me you’ve passed your driving test! disbelief
Do that again and you’ll be sorry. condition of threat
Pass your exams and we’ll buy you a bike. condition of promise
Don’t forget your umbrella! reminder
Mind the step!/ Be careful with that hot plate! warning
Feel free to take as many leaflets as you like. permission
Just listen to this! showing interest/involvement
Try one of these! offer
Let’s go jogging! suggestion
Come on now, don’t cry!/ Go on, have a go! encouragement
Sleep well! Have a safe journey! good wishes
Suppose he doesn’t answer. considering a possible happening
Think nothing of it. rejecting thanks
[Some people make easy profit.] Take drug handlers. illustrative example of a claim
