Syntax and Semantics of Imperative Subjects

Abstract

In this paper I examine the distributional and typological constraints on subjects of imperatives in English, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish and aim to account for all the facts call for explanation (interpretation of imperative subject, word order variation, etc.) with as few departures as possible from declarative clauses. In fact, all the observed differences are shown to reduce to features of one functional X°. After charting the typology of licit imperative DPs for each language, I present an analysis which accounts for with reference to two points of difference: ±identity and ±case neutralisation.