Functional Categories in Imperative Clause Structure

Abstract

The present chapter investigates the clause structure of English imperatives, aiming to determine which functional categories may be represented and what feature matrix they are associated with. After pointing out in section 2.1 a difficulty one at first encounters when looking into this matter, the discussion proceeds with sections 2.2 and 2.3 which respectively examine the standard clausal categories INFL and COMP individually. Contrary to what has sometimes been envisaged, I will contemplate the possibility that INFL is not an ‘inert’ head in imperative clauses, and suggest that a CP layer, if projected at all, might not be merged until after Spell-Out. Section 2.4 briefly discusses the syntactic status of the aspectual auxiliaries have and be (which combine with a participle to form perfect or progressive constructions) and concludes that a more recently postulated syntactic head, ASP(ect), is among the set of functional categories that comprise the phrase structure of English imperatives. The suggestions that are made with respect to INFL and COMP, and the evidence that exists for the presence of a structural level between IP and VP in English (which may be identified with ASPP), are of particular significance in the context of the analysis developed in later chapters.