The imperative in English: "prefiguring" an exit from the speech system

This paper tackles aspects of the construction of meaning of the English imperative, in the framework of Vachek's (1966) suggestion that "anti-integrating" tendencies may be at work in linguistic systems when the peripheral position of some elements enables them to activate specific functional possibilities. The typical lack of markers in the imperative is claimed to contribute positively to a particular strategy of enunciation. Davies (1986) showed how the bare stem of the verb enables the speaker to present the hearer with a potentiality of action to be enacted. To account for the way the projection of actual enactment is signified, Cotte (1998) advanced the concept of "mimetic prefiguration" (the idea that the lack of markers casts light on the act of uttering itself, thus implicitly laying the focus on the idea of "action"). This paper proposes an addition: the verb base, which is presented to the addressee without any markers of tense, mode or person (including pronouns), is the version of the verb closest to its identity in "langue". I suggest that the systematic absence of syntagmatic markers positions imperative utterances at the periphery of the system of linearized speech, a position which enables these utterances to "prefigure" the desired shift from the world of talk to that of action.

Keywords: imperative; English; speech system; enunciation