Semantics and pragmatics of the imperative in the modern German language

Abstract
The article deals with the imperative, one of the moods, which has a large scope of semantic and pragmatic functions. The author analyses the grammatical status of the imperative and the structure of its paradigm, proving its categorical belonging to both morphology and syntax. The main components of its semantics and the restrictions in the imperative forms usage are revealed and described. The semantics of the imperative is presented in connection with the future time orientation so that we can observe the synonymy of forms and constructions which express imperativeness through actualizing the meaning of the motivation for an action. The usage of the imperative forms in different speech acts is analyzed.

Keywords: imperative mood, imperative paradigm, semantics, speech acts, the German language