A Unified Analysis of Imperative Sentences in English: Adjacency Approach Between Lexical Bearers of Imperative Features and Functional Locus of Imperative Features

Abstract

This article aims to address imperative constructions in English and provide unified licensing conditions under the one of the most current minimalist frameworks. The licensing conditions put forth in this study will account for positive and negative imperative sentences in English regarding the physical linear adjacency requirement between the functional host of (emphatic) imperative features and the lexical bearers of imperative features as well as the economy principle that vacuous syntactic operations that do not produce syntactic or semantic effects should be prohibited. The alternative licensing conditions offered in this study are comprised of four options. These four options might be considered optimal hierarchical syntactic conditions in that they are applied in an orderly fashion. (Cyber Hankuk University of Foreign Studies · Dankook University · Dankook University)