Elicitation of imperatives

Perfectionism, a condition which has been linked with psychopathology, has been conceptualized somewhat disparately. This study was concerned with scrutinizing past and current conceptualizations of perfectionism, with developing and proposing a framework for evaluating conceptualizations of perfectionism, and with contributing to current conceptualizations and measures of perfectionism via qualitative inquiry. This study presented an argument for using a proximal-distal approach to conceptualizing perfectionism and put forward the Framework for Evaluating Conceptualizations of Perfectionism (FECP) as a tool for doing so. Evidence was found for using this approach by way of conducting tape recorded interviews of six perfectionists and using grounded theory research methodology to analyse the data. The analysis yielded a new theoretical model for perfectionism which has implications for conceptualizing, measuring, and treating perfectionism. For instance, perfectionism may be best viewed in terms of object, process, and inextricable cognitive responses. The results of interviewing the participants of this study suggest the object of perfectionism is a Cognitive Diathesis for Perfectionism (CDP). The results also suggest that the process of perfectionism is made up of three behavioural imperatives: (1) Forming ideals of perfection, (2) Striving for perfection, and (3) Evaluating for perfection. Finally, they suggest that evaluating for perfection inevitably leads to cognitive dissonance. Peripheral to perfectionism are its distal consequences and correlates, its antecedents and maintenance, and any effective coping or tempering strategies that may help to manage it. Only the object, process, and cognitive responses of perfectionism should be incorporated into an overall measure of perfectionism. Antecedents and maintenance, and distal consequences and correlates of perfectionism measures should be administered separately. The management of perfectionism is most effectively aimed at tempering striving for perfection and evaluating for perfection. / Graduate

In this paper I put forth three criticisms against McDowell account of the idea that moral requirements are categorical imperatives. I argue that McDowell’s account fails as a defense of Kant’s doctrine for at least three reasons. First, McDowell claims that agents can appeal to experience in order to formulate and recognize categorical imperatives. However, Kant strongly disagrees with this claim, explicitly claiming that moral requirements cannot be derived from experience. Second, McDowell argues that the virtuous agent will not experience inner conflict when motivating herself to act virtuously, but inner conflict plays a central role in Kant’s picture of moral motivation and virtue. Third, McDowell does not account for how the moral law serves as a necessary incentive to moral action through the a priori feeling of respect. Finally, I suggest that my criticisms cast doubt on the validity of McDowell’s account, and provide insights into some criteria that an account must meet if it is to be a proper defense of Kant’s doctrine of moral requirements as categorical imperatives.

The study compared 10 fluent second language learners (L2Ls) and 10 heritage learners of Russian (HLs) to monolingual controls (n=20) in their judgments of the subtle nuances of aspectual usage in direct positive and negative imperative structures. The participants were asked to rate the appropriateness of pairs of imperative sentences differing in the aspectual form of the verb against the suggested discourse context. The analysis of the ratings revealed assumed deviations from the baseline in L2Ls. The HLs also revealed deviations, but unexpectedly, did not follow the baseline tendencies of the control monolingual group. Frequency and learning experience are some of the possible explanations of these finding and implications for pedagogy.

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Title: Hare's thesis as a logical and philosophical problem Author: Martin Luhan Department: Department of Logic Supervisor: PhDr. Vladimír Svoboda, CSc. Abstract: The present work is aiming to analyse the problem of inferring from impe- rative premisses to an indicative conclusion which goes by the name Hare's Thesis. The logical analysis of the language of morals was the basis of Richard M. Hare's ethical studies. Therefore a brief presentation of his philosophy is given followed by a detailed walkthrough of his way of dealing with impera- tives. Hare states that logic should be interested in dealing with prescriptive sentences. The paper also presents a selection of some of the semantics of logic of imperatives and some of their fundamental problems. Based on this we finally analyse whether the Hare's Thesis which forbids inferring from im- perative premisses to indicative conclusions is acceptable. And we conclude that in most cases it is reasonable to reject it. Keywords: Logic of imperatives, Hare's Thesis, deontic logic, metaethics

This dissertation examines in depth one of the potential causes of the low performance of foreign aid; in particular, the role incentive structures within international donor agencies could play in leading to “a push” to disburse money. This pressure to disburse money is termed as the “Money-Moving Syndrome”. In this dissertation, the “Money Moving Syndrome” exists when the quantity of foreign aid committed or disbursed becomes, in itself, an important objective side by side or above the effectiveness of aid. The theoretical analysis relies on the principal-agent theory to explore how donor agencies’ institutional incentive systems may affect the characteristics of an optimal and efficient incentive contract and thus give rise to the “Money-Moving Syndrome”. We adapted the basic framework developed in Baker (1992) to fit the organizational settings of international development agencies. The model concludes that the extent to which a performance measure based the amount of aid allocated within a specific period of time would lead to the “Money-Moving Syndrome” and affect aid effectiveness depends on the level of institutional imperatives for survival and growth, the degree of aid agency’s accountability for effectiveness, the level of corruption in recipient countries and the degree of difficulty to evaluate development activities. Due to data unavailability regarding other bilateral and multilateral aid agencies, the empirical framework tests several predictions of the theoretical model by examining whether money moving incentives affect World Bank’s decisions regarding project loan size in developing countries. Overall, the empirical results suggest that there seems to be some degree of “Money-Moving Syndrome” in effect within the World Bank.

<p>A word or a linguistic construction can mean various things depending on the context. The imperative is a representative example of such a construction and can express a variety of illocutionary forces such as COMMAND, REQUEST, ADVICE, and more (Quirk et al., 1985, Huddleston et al., 2002). </p> <p>However, although there are many studies that comprehensively deal with the imperative or individual illocutionary forces of it (e.g. Lakoff, 1966, Ljung, 1975, Davies, 1986, Wilson & Sperber 1988, Han, 2000, Takahashi, 2012, Jary & Kissine, 2014), there is no such study that shows a possible overall process of how we would interpret an imperative to reach a certain illocutionary force when it is uttered. Without such a shared process, we cannot explain why we can communicate using imperatives without misunderstandings. Thus, this process needs to be investigated. </p> <p>Another problem regarding imperatives is the treatment of non-directive uses of imperatives such as “Have a good day”. The illocutionary force of this imperative would be called GOOD WISH and regarded as a conventional use of imperatives (Davies, 1986). However, it has not been clearly explained why we would choose the imperative construction to express wishes. If this kind of wishes expressed in the form of the imperative are actually a use of imperative, then there should be some reason and motivation for it. </p> <p>The main purposes of this study are to provide (1) a schema of how one would typically reach the interpretation of WISH when hearing an imperative and (2) an account of such use of imperatives as WISH. In this study, examples of imperatives in two non-cognate languages are used for the analysis in the hope to substantiate the credibility of the schema and the account: Japanese and English. Based on the analyses on the imperative and individual illocutionary forces that have been presented in the literature combined with my own analysis, a schema is proposed that illustrates how one would typically reach PRIVATE WISH, the state of affairs of which is deemed to be desirable mainly for the speaker, and GOOD WISH, the state of affairs of which is deemed to be desirable mainly for the addressee. Then, an account for the use of PRIVATE WISH and GOOD WISH is provided. Specifically, the use of imperatives as WISH is an analogous use of prototypical imperatives; people would use the imperative construction to express their strong desirability, and to build and maintain a good relationship with others.</p>

Les grammairiens considèrent que l’impératif est le moyen normal pour formuler une injonction. Cependant d’autres moyens tels que l’assertion, l’interrogation, les expressions averbales sont possibles. Notre thèse se propose d’étudier les caractéristiques syntaxiques, sémantiques et pragmatiques ainsi que la répartition de ces moyens en fonction des activités linguistiques pratiquées par les locuteurs. Nous avons retenu cinq situations (entretien, petit commerce, didactique – institutionnelle et didactique – amicale).Après avoir défini sur une base pragmatique, nous avons essayé de dégager les configurations très fréquentes et celles qui restent exceptionnelles, de voir comment les compétences linguistiques sont mobilisées par les locuteurs pour satisfaire les attentes normatives dans les différentes situations sociales qui constituent notre corpus. / The grammar considers that the imperative form is the normal means to formulate imperative utterances. However, other means like assertives, interrogatives and non-verbal expressions are possible. Our thesis studies the syntactical, semantic and pragmatic caracteristics of these structures and their distributions according to the linguistic activities. We have taken five situations (interview, small commerce, didactical – institutionnal, didactical – friendly).Adopting a pragmatic definition of the imperative, we tryed to figure out the frequent and exeptionnel configurations, to see how linguistic skills are mobilized by speakers to satisfy the normative expectations in these different social situations.

Traditionally, much criminological research has focused on male complexities of confinement, sidelining the experiences of federally and especially provincially incarcerated women in Canada. This thesis seeks to capture some of the experiences and challenges faced by incarcerated women as they attempt to negotiate agency and maintain choice and control over their health and bodies while inside correctional institutions. In order to do so, this study draws from Foucaultian-inspired concepts of discipline, governance, regulation, power, and resistance as a means to theoretically analyze the daily, often strategic, actions of women prisoners. This research is qualitative, and emerges from the data secured through in depth interviews with twelve previously incarcerated women, who were asked to speak of their experiences inside Canadian prisons with respect to issues of choice and control over hygiene, diet, exercise, and access to over-the-counter medication. The data were coded and organized into three substantial themes: opportunity for choice or learned dependence, the ‘layering’ of punishment, and creating space for agency. The analysis revealed that incarcerated women attempt to manage and maintain control over their health but meet ongoing punitive carceral responses when making decisions about their bodies that conflict with institutional mandates, discourses, or goals. Without the opportunity to perform culturally accepted norms of health and femininity, women in prison fail to achieve a positive or ‘good’ womanly status, which comes to impact their self-worth, self-esteem, and identity. These findings create direct implications for Corrections, as they inevitably produce docile and institutionally dependent women rather than responsible and productive citizens, the stated rehabilitational goal of correctional services.