Who says so? Imperatives at the Semantics/Pragmatics Interface.
Frank Veltman,
Institute for Logic, Language & Computation, University of Amsterdam

Whether or not we, as the addressee, will accept a given command depends heavily on the `authority' of the speaker. It often happens that one authority overrules the other. First our boss orders us to open the window and next his boss tells us to close it. First you forbid your son to take an apple, but then your spouse permits him to take an apple or a pear. First you are told to stay inside if it rains, and then somebody tells you to leave the building. In the latter case, would you conclude that it is not raining? And should your son conclude that he may take a pear, but not an apple? Is the answer to these questions a matter of logic? Or do pragmatic factors interfere? This is the kind of questions I will discuss in my talk, in which I will present a theory of imperatives in the framework of update semantcs. This theory gives a dynamic twist to the theory developed by Paul Portner, the basic idea being that an imperative sentence invites the addressee to update his or her plans for the future with the action described in the imperative.