ABSTRACT
To speak a language you need to have more than a knowledge of its vocabulary and grammar. You also need to know how to use it effectively to communicate a message, to request information, to solicit something or action, and so on. Knowledge of how to construct an imperative in English is insufficient: you must also know how, and under what circumstances, to use it to get another person to do something. You need to know when it is better to use another construction: the imperative might be too direct, and offend or anger the addressee. For instance, if you were a guest for a meal at the home of an acquaintance who you did not know very well, to request an extra helping with an imperative ‘Give me more of that!’ would be rude; a more polite way of phrasing it might be the interrogative ‘Could I have some more of that please?’, or declarative ‘I really liked that’ or ‘That was very good’. Speakers of a language have a profound though usually unconscious knowledge of these things; they know how to use words effectively to do things, to achieve their goals and to make appropriate meanings.
