On the subject of imperatives: A minimalist account of the imperative clause

Abstract

This paper presents a structural account of imperative clauses where the theoretical cornerstones are the Minimalist Program of Chomsky (1995) and the analysis of the C-domain in Rizzi (1995). According to Rizzi, the C-domain has at least two parts, the outward facing ForceP, a sentence type projection where information of the type of the clause is represented, and an inward facing part, FinP, related to tense and mood. We argue in this paper that the main difference between imperative clauses and other sentence types is the lack of FinP and hence finiteness in imperative clauses; having no FinP, imperative clauses also lack MoodP and TP. The imperative clause is thus less articulated compared with the declarative and interrogative clauses.