LessonsSupplementary Practice 4: Audience, Emphasis, Restriction and Rhetorical JudgmentQuiz

افْتَحِ الْبَابَ.
Open the door.

The imperative normally requests an action. In context, however, an imperative may function as entreaty, advice, threat, or challenge. Those forces cannot be extracted from the morphological pattern in isolation.

A gentle request from a peer and a stern order from a superior may share the same Arabic imperative, yet carry different pragmatic force. Before assigning a nonliteral function, examine the speaker’s relation to the addressee, the situation, and whether fulfillment is presented as feasible or impossible.

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Imperative form and its contextual force

Supplementary Practice 4: Audience, Emphasis, Restriction and Rhetorical Judgment

افْتَحِ الْبَابَ.
Open the door.

The imperative normally requests an action. In context, however, an imperative may function as entreaty, advice, threat, or challenge. Those forces cannot be extracted from the morphological pattern in isolation.

A gentle request from a peer and a stern order from a superior may share the same Arabic imperative, yet carry different pragmatic force. Before assigning a nonliteral function, examine the speaker’s relation to the addressee, the situation, and whether fulfillment is presented as feasible or impossible.