Imperatives in Arabic: syntax, discourse and interface

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide an analysis of imperatives in Arabic based on the syntactic, discourse and interface properties these structures have. I argue that the ultimate interpretation of imperatives involves a correlation of the syntax and discourse at the interface. The interface role is required by interpretive imports, and manifested via performative functions imperatives perform, hence correlating the informational coda and the propositional structure. I argue that the thematic subject of imperatives is a 2 (person) pro, and the overt (pro)nominal constituent showing up preverbally is not a subject, but rather a C-domain element, precisely an aboutness topic. This topic counts as the logical subject of imperatives, and enters a coreferentiality relation with pro. This coreferentiality takes the form of Agree as Match, and results in (non)local A’-chains. In the case of core imperatives, i.e., those without a spelled out topic, I propose a null topic to (re)merge in Spec,TopP, whose interpretation depends on the discourse.