Permission and Choice

This paper provides an analysis of two related properties of imperatives: (i) their variation in discourse function and (ii) their licensing of free choice inferences. With regard to (i), it is argued that imperatives are semantically uniform, and that their wide range of interpretations is explained by two factors: differences in the grounds for issuing a given imperative and the logical relationship between the imperative and other commitments of the addressee. Concerning (ii), the same ideas which are used to analyze permission, in combination with an “alternatives” semantics for disjunction and indefinites, are able to explain free choice and related phenomena, such as Ross’s Paradox and the licensing of any.

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