Abstract
The most successful pragmatic and semantic charactcrizations of the English imperatives have possibly been as prescriptiens impesed en the addressee by 51w speaker and as expressiens of the speaker’s acceptance of something coming true, respectively. Hewever, exceptions te both acceunts are not difficult te fiud. In this paper the claim is set forth that a semantie feature is shared by ali imperatives: the expression ofboulomaic modality, that is, the indication of the speakers (positive or negative) concern towards the proposition being made the case. Tbis common feature will acquire different nuances (obligation, permission, acceptance, wish), which correlate with different illocutionary forces, depending en certain situational facters, such as the relationsliip between the speakcr aud the addressee or the speaker’s desire te be polite, oren linguistie facters, such as clauses appended te the imperative by ceordination orjuxtaposition. Nevertheless, the illecutionary modifications involved by such factors will noS prevcnt the elerncnt of speakers cencern frem being present in ali imperativcs.
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