Interpreting Imperatives

278 Pages·2012·2.92 MB·English

by  Magdalena Kaufmann (auth.)

INTERPRETINGIMPERATIVES
STUDIESINLINGUISTICSANDPHILOSOPHY
VOLUME88
ManagingEditors
LISAMATTHEWSON,UniversityofBritishColumbia,Vancouver,
Canada
YAELSHARVIT,UniversityofConnecticut,Storrs,USA
THOMASEDEZIMMERMANN,JohannWolfgangGoethe-Universität,
FrankfurtamMain,Germany
EditorialBoard
JOHANVANBENTHEM,UniversityofAmsterdam,TheNetherlands
GREGORYN.CARLSON,UniversityofRochester,U.S.A.
DAVIDDOWTY,OhioStateUniversity,Columbus,U.S.A.
GERALDGAZDAR,UniversityofSussex,Brighton,U.K.
IRENEHEIM,M.I.T.,Cambridge,U.S.A.
EWANKLEIN,UniversityofEdinburgh,Scotland,U.K.
BILLLADUSAW,UniversityofCalifornia,SantaCruz,U.S.A.
TERRENCEPARSONS,UniversityofCalifornia,Irvine,U.S.A.
Forfurthervolumesinthisseries:
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INTERPRETING
IMPERATIVES
by
MAGDALENA KAUFMANN
UniversityofGöttingen,Germany
123
MagdalenaKaufmann
UniversityofGöttingen
DepartmentofLinguistics/Courant
ResearchCentre“TextStructures”
Käte-Hamburger-Weg,3
37073Göttingen
Germany
[email protected]
ISSN0924-4662
ISBN978-94-007-2268-2 e-ISBN978-94-007-2269-9
DOI10.1007/978-94-007-2269-9
SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergLondonNewYork
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2011937654
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Preface
The work that lead to this book started out years ago, in a different place and
underadifferentname,whenIwasanewgraduatestudentattheGraduiertenkolleg
SatzarteninFrankfurt.Littlemayshehaveknownthatshesetmeonanenterprise
thatwouldoccupyandintriguemeformanyyearswhenmythenofficemateMelani
Wratil, herself deep in thought about the syntax of imperative clauses, suggested
someone should look at their semantics. I’d like to thank her for this remark (as
wellashersupportwhenItooktoit),asthetopicturnedouttobeoneofthemost
interestingchallengesofhowtopositiontheroleofmeaningattheinteracebetween
formanduse.
YearslaterwhatMagdalenaSchwagerhandedinratherhurriedlyasherdoctoral
dissertationin2006hasbeenreworkedandturnedintoamonographbyMagdalena
Kaufmann.Althoughtheresultisstillanythingbutperfect,itisnowtimetoletgo,
and I hope that there is something to be learned from this book: for those inter-
estedinimperativesinparticular,themeaningtheycarryandhowitmightbebuilt
up from smaller parts, and for those interested in how to conceive of the interface
betweenformandfunction.Beinganinvestigationattheinterfacebetweenformand
function,ittouchesnecessarilyuponmanydomainsnoteveryreadermaybeequally
familiarwithorevenjustequallyinterestedin.Itriedtobeexplicitandbreakthings
upinaperspicuouswaysothatreaderscangoaboutitsomewhatselectively.Toget
an idea of what conception of the semantics-pragmatics interface I have in mind,
it might be sufficient to look at Chapter 1 and Section 2.3. Readers interested in a
comparison of different conceptions of the semantics-pragmatics interface, should
look at Sections 2.1 and 2.2 in particular. Many of the more specialized topics (in
particular, Sections 3.2.3, 3.2.4, 3.2.5 and Chapter 6) can be skipped by readers
interestedonlyinthecorephenomena.Chapter3ismostimportanttoallconcerns
regarding the syntax-semantics interface. Chapter 4 spells out the technicalities of
myaccountofimperatives,whichisalreadyintroducedandmotivatedmoreinfor-
mallyinSection2.3.
Havingreachedthispoint,Iwouldliketoacknowledge thesupportandfriend-
shipofanumberofpeoplewithoutwhomthedissertationwouldneverhavemade
it into a monograph. You will find numerous notes of thanks and references to
helpfulcommentsandpiecesofdatadistributedthroughoutthisbook,andIhave—
somewhat hesitantly—decided against repeating all of them here up front. In the
v
vi Preface
following,IwilljusttrytomentionafewpeoplewhohadwhatIwouldliketocall
a‘global’impactonthisparticularpieceofwork.
Firstofall,IwanttothankmyDoktorvater EdeZimmermann.Hehasnotonly
taught me an invaluable amount of things in semantics, but he has also passed on
a bit of his constant curiosity and joy in discovering problems and their possible
solutions,andhekeepsdoingso,aswellasbeingincrediblyhelpfulinallsortsof
theoreticalorpracticalmatters.Theprocessofturningthedissertationintoabook
startedoutfromhiscomments,aswellasthoseofmysecondsupervisor,Günther
Grewendorf,whokeepsmakingmeawareofwhatisthrillingaboutsytnax,andthe
externalmemberofmycommittee,ArnimvonStechow,whowasalsomyveryfirst
teacher in semantics and has never stopped to present me with thought provoking
questions.
TherewritinghasprofitedalotfromdiscussionwiththeparticipantsofmyESS-
LLIclassonimperatives(Hamburg,2008),andthejointonewithRegineEckardton
SpeechActs(Bordeaux,2008).Fortheirwillingnesstoworkthroughmuchmessier
earlierversionsofthismanuscript,theirpatiencetoreallydoso,andforproviding
mewithannotatedversionscontainingmanychallengingquestions,Iwouldliketo
thankinparticularCleoCondoravdi,YurieHara,SvenLauer,theSLAPserieseditor
LisaMatthewson,PaulPortner,andananonymousreviewerforSpringer.
Also, writing a book would have been extremely different without Nicholas
Asher,JulieHunter,Shin-SookKim,andPeterSells,whowerealwaystherewhen
I needed help with theoretical problems, with practical matters, or just with data.
IlariaFranaandSarahZobelwatchedmybacktohelpmefindthetimeforworking
onthebook.MartinPrinzhornandViolaSchmittkeepremindingmeofthejoythat
liesinlinguisticsandhowtocombineitwithotherqualitiesoflife.
Thanks to Lewis Gebhardt for proof reading this manuscript, and to Helen van
derSteltforherpatiencewithmydelaysandhercarefulsupervisionofthepublica-
tionprocessatSpringer.
Finally,somepeopledeservethanksfortheirsupportinkeepingmyprivatelife
goingduringthesepastfewyearsfromdissertationtobook.
I want to thank my parents, Walter und Hildegund Scheiner, for all the help,
patience and love they have been offering constantly—and for understanding so
wellthatonecanbesoimpassionedwithwork.
Finally, Stefan and Sebastian had to put up with me through these painful last
stretch of getting the monograph done. Maybe unexpectedly at the very end of
acknowledgments,Stefandeservescreditasoneofthemostcarefulandalsomost
unforgiving readers of earlier versions of this book. In addition to our joint work
partofwhichispresentedinChapter6,histhoughtshavebeenextremelyhelpfulin
rewritingChapter2inparticular.Butatthesametime,andmoreinlinewiththese
acknowledgmentscomingtoanend,hehasmydeepestgratitudeforcountlessways
in which he would always make me take another step—from discussing problems
tocooking lotsofmabutofuandJapanese-stylekaree.Sebastian beatthebook by
nearly a year, and he turned out to be infinitely more supportive of my work than
whatyou’dusuallyexpectofsomeonehisage.Whileevenhispurepresencemadea
Preface vii
wholelotofadifference,hischeerfulmoodandnicesleepinghabitsdeservespecial
mentionaswell.
Manymorepeopledeserveacknowledgmenthere,andmyfailuretogiveafairer
listisjustoneofmanymishapsthatmostcertainlyremaininanenterpriselikethis
book.Letmestressthatallmistakesandinadequaciesaremine.
This project was funded by the German Research Foundation and the German
Initiative of Excellence Institutional support was provided by the University of
Frankfurt,theUniversityofGöttingen,andNorthwesternUniversity.
Göttingen,Germany MagdalenaKaufmann
June2011
Contents
1 SettingtheScene .............................................. 1
1.1 IndividuatingImperatives ................................... 1
1.1.1 TryingaPurelyFunctionalIndividuation............... 3
1.1.2 TryingaPurelyFormalIndividuation.................. 4
1.1.3 Imperatives as Clause Types Individuated
byaForm-FunctionPair ............................ 5
1.2 ClauseTypesandActualUtterances .......................... 10
1.3 SemanticsorPragmatics?—DecidingontheBoundaries ......... 16
1.4 TheFramework ........................................... 21
2 HowtoHandleImperativesinSemantics ......................... 29
2.1 ThreeParametersofClassification............................ 30
2.1.1 SplitandUniformRepresentationalism ................ 30
2.1.2 AssigningMeaningtoImperatives:StaticorDynamic.... 34
2.1.3 PossibleDenotataforImperatives..................... 41
2.2 AFewRecentApproachestoImperatives...................... 42
2.2.1 SpeechActsasInputtoSemanticComputation ......... 43
2.2.2 Performative Modals and Non-epistemic Context
ChangePotentials ................................. 45
2.2.3 (Ex-)ChangingtheWorld ............................ 47
2.2.4 ImperativesasUpdatingTo-DoLists .................. 50
2.3 ModalizedPropositions:IdeaandMotivation................... 56
2.3.1 PerformativeandDescriptiveModalVerbs ............. 58
2.3.2 UpdatesandSpeechActs ............................ 65
2.3.3 ImperativesandDeclarativesonaPar.................. 67
3 ImperativesasGradedModals .................................. 73
3.1 ModalityinPossibleWorldsSemantics........................ 73
3.1.1 SimpleModality ................................... 74
3.1.2 PersonalandImpersonalConversationalBackgrounds.... 76
3.1.3 GradedModality ................................... 83
3.2 ImperativesattheSyntax-SemanticsInterface .................. 86
ix
x Contents
3.2.1 General Considerations on the Syntactic Make-Up
ofImperatives..................................... 87
3.2.2 Tense,Aspect,andTheirRelationtoModality .......... 93
3.2.3 TemporalOppositionsinImperatives .................. 102
3.2.4 TheImperativeSubject.............................. 105
3.2.5 DoImperativesExpressPersonalModality? ............ 122
3.3 Conclusion ............................................... 128
4 FromModalizedPropositionstoSpeechActs ..................... 129
4.1 ContextualDependenceinthePropositional
MeaningComponents ...................................... 129
4.1.1 ORDERs,COMMANDs,andREQUESTs ................ 131
4.1.2 PROHIBITIONs..................................... 133
4.1.3 WISHesandABSENTWISHes........................ 135
4.1.4 ADVICE .......................................... 141
4.2 Constraining the Predictions: The Presuppositional
MeaningComponent ....................................... 144
4.2.1 RestrictionsFamiliarfromModalVerbs................ 145
4.2.2 Authority:DerivingSelf-Verification .................. 147
4.2.3 EpistemicUncertaintyandtheOrdering
SourceRestriction ................................. 155
4.2.4 PuttingItAllTogether .............................. 162
4.3 SomeConsiderationsonPropositionalityandRejections ......... 163
5 PossibilityReadings ........................................... 169
5.1 PermittingPermissions ..................................... 171
5.1.1 PERMISSION-likeSpeechActs ....................... 171
5.2 AnyTroubles?............................................. 176
5.2.1 IndifferenceAny-Imperatives......................... 176
5.2.2 SubtriggedNecessityAny-Imperatives ................. 177
5.2.3 RecapitulatingAny-Results .......................... 179
5.3 ForExample-ADVICE ...................................... 180
5.3.1 (In)ExhaustiveNecessityandPossibility ............... 181
5.3.2 DiamondsAreaGirl’sBestFriend .................... 183
5.4 Conclusion ............................................... 190
6 EmbeddingImperatives ........................................ 193
6.1 Reported Speech and Imperatives from a Cross-Linguistic
Perspective ............................................... 196
6.1.1 IndirectSpeech,Parentheticals,andQuotations ......... 197
6.1.2 QuotativeConstructionsinJapaneseandMalagasy ...... 199
6.1.3 FossilizedConstructionsinAncientGreekandMiddle
HighGerman ..................................... 204
6.1.4 ContextHarmonyinOldGermanic.................... 205