Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T05:51:51.529Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Government-Binding perspective on the imperative in English1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Frits Beukema  and
Peter Coopmans
Frits Beukema
Affiliation:
University of Leiden
Peter Coopmans
Affiliation:
University of Utrecht
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Culicover (1976:152) states that ‘the imperative is an idiosyncratic construction in most languages’. One of the aims of this article is to show that as far as this construction in the English language is concerned, this is an overstatement if we give careful consideration to the structural properties of this construction in a restrictive framework such as Government-Binding theory. Given the proposals in current generative grammar concerning the relations between COMP, INFL, V and their corresponding projections, it is worth investigating what the syntactic representation of the imperative may look like.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , September 1989 , pp. 417 - 436
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Chomsky, N. (1977). On Wh-movement. In Culicover, P. A. Akmaijan & Wasow, T. (eds) Formal syntax. New York: Academic Press. 71–132.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1986a). Knowledge of language. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1986b). Barriers. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1988). Some notes on economy of derivation and representation. In Laka, I. & Mahajan, A. (eds) MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 10. Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Culicover, P. W. (1976). Syntax. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Clark, R. (1986). Boundaries and the treatment of control. PhD dissertation, UCLA.Google Scholar
Davies, E. (1986). The English imperative. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Emonds, J. E. (1976). A transformational approach to English syntax. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Enç, M. (1981). Tense without scope: an analysis of nouns as indexicals. PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison.Google Scholar
Haan, G. de & Weerman, F. (1985). Finiteness and verb fronting in Frisian. In Haider, H. & Prinzhorn, M. (eds) Verb second phenomena in Germanic languages. Dordrecht: Foris. 78–110.Google Scholar
Huang, J. (1984). On the distribution and reference of empty pronouns. LIn 15. 531–574.Google Scholar
Lasnik, H. (1981). Restricting the theory of transformations: a case study. In Hornstein, N. & Lightfoot, D. (eds) Explanation in linguistics. The logical problem of language acquisition. London: Longman. 152–173.Google Scholar
Lasnik, H. & Saito, M. (1984). On the nature of proper government. LIn 15. 235–289.Google Scholar
May, R. (1977). The grammar of quantification. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Pollock, J -Y. (1988). Verb movement, UG, and the structure of IP. ms. Université de Haute-Bretagne, Rennes.Google Scholar
Reuland, E. (1983). Governing -ing. LIn 14. 101–136.Google Scholar
Rigter, B. (1987). How do you do do? In Beukema, F. & Coopmans, P. (eds) Linguistics in the Netherlands 1987. Dordrecht: Foris. 173–183.Google Scholar
Rizzi, L. (1986). Null subjects and the theory of pro. LIn 17. 501–557.Google Scholar
Rizzi, L. (1987). Relativized minimality, ms. University of Geneva.Google Scholar
Stockwell, R., Schachter, P. & Partee, B. (1973). The major syntactic structures of English. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Stowell, T. (1983). Subjects across categories. The Linguistic Review 2. 285–312.Google Scholar
Travis, L. (1984). Parameters and effects of word order variation. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar