Abstract
Imperatives may be interpreted with many subvarieties of directive
force, for example as orders, invitations, or pieces of advice. I argue that the
range of meanings that imperatives can convey should be identified with the
variety of interpretations that are possible for non-dynamic root modals (what I
call ‘priority modals’), including deontic, bouletic, and teleological readings.
This paper presents an analysis of the relationship between imperatives and
priority modals in discourse which asserts that, just as declaratives contribute to
the Common Ground and thus provide information relevant to the interpretation of epistemic modals in subsequent discourse, imperatives contribute to
another component of the discourse context, the addressee’s To-Do List, which
serves as a contextual resource for the interpretation of priority modals. This
analysis predicts that the interpretation of imperatives and modals in discourse
is constrained in surprising ways; these predictions are borne out.