ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses an uncontroversial example of control: rules and regulations, and the language in which they are expressed. Rules are instructions for behaving in ways which will bring about an intended or desired state. The vagaries and idiosyncrasies of real language in real social contexts were all but anathema to the Chomskyan tradition. While Language and Controlis perhaps dated in many respects, its publication in the late 1970s marked a key and lasting turn in modern linguistics. As a general principle, propose that the greater the power differential between the parties to a speech act of command, the more ‘direct’ the syntactic form which may be chosen. The swimming club rule-writer is in an ambivalent position of artificial authority, and needs to avoid curtness. He plays down even the very little power he does possess.
