<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>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/8036114 |
| Date | 14 May 2019 |
| Creators | Ryo Nomura (6630887) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/A_Pragmatic_Analysis_of_WISH_Imperatives/8036114 |
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