Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses roughly one outstanding point about imperative syntax. It outlines the syntactic framework in which the analyses are embedded, approximately the Principles and Parameters Theory of the early 1990’s including the innovation of Checking Theory from the Minimalist Program. The book aims to develop specific analyses of adverb placement, verb phrase ellipsis, negation, and floating quantifiers. It investigates the position of verbal elements, auxiliaries and main verbs, in imperatives and other English clauses. The book argues that the difference has an explanation in terms of verb raising. It shows that the difference has a principled analysis within the theory of clause structure. The English imperative consists only of a verb phrase, in the non-technical sense: a verb in its bare form plus internal arguments and adjuncts, if any.