The Expression Intensity Of Imperative Sentence In Modern Chinese

In daily communication, imperative sentences, while expressing the hope that someoneshould or should not do something, often adopt the tones of command, suggestion, request,ban, dissuade, and beg, so as to express the speaker’s subjective modality. This is called theexpression of imperative sentences. The intensity of the imperative sentence expression refersto speakers’ expression of their emotions or attitudes, which show the degree of intensity ofthe imperative expression.Positive imperative sentences can be classified in two types, namely the emphasizingimperative sentence and zero form imperative sentence, which contains expressions ofdifferent intensity sequence respectively. Among them, the expression intensity sequence foremphasizing imperative sentences, command, suggestion and request sentences is: command(must/give me/be sure that+VP)>suggestion (should/ought to be+VP/VP+verbal measurewords/VPVP, be sure that+VPVP/VP+verbal measure words, do pay+VP)>request (please/beg+be sure that/do play+VP/VP+verbal measure words/VPVP). The expression intensitysequence for zero form imperative sentences, command, suggestion and request sentences is:command (VP)>suggestion (VP/VP+verbal measure words/VPVP+modal words)>request(please/beg+VP/VP+verbal measure words/VPVP+modal words/ok, right, okay interrogativeform). From the perspective of emphasizing imperative sentences and zero form imperativesentences, the intensity of emphasizing type command, suggestion, request sentences is higherthan zero form command, suggestion and request sentences.There are two types of negative imperative sentences too, namely the dominant negativeimperative sentence and the recessive negative imperative sentence, and each type also has acorresponding expression intensity sequence. The expression intensity sequence for dominantnegative imperative sentences is, ban, dissuade and beg: ban (forbid/no+VP)>dissuade(needn’t/don’t/no/don’t+VP+modal words)>begging (please/beg+don’+VP+modal words/ok,right, okay interrogative form). The recessive negative imperative sentences, with typicalwords such as "be cautions, watch out, look out, pay attention to", express the speaker’sreminding, warning and discouragement.The imperative sentences contain rich meaning, which can be reflected by the differentexpressions. Words and structure (including structural change) can affect the expressionintensity of imperative sentences, among which adverbs, auxiliary verbs, modal words, andthe initial words, polite words can affect the imperative sentence expression intensity indifferent ways. Besides, overlapping verbs or verbs followed by verbal measure words, shift, additional, and fixed structure "give me ", interrogative forms etc, can also affect theexpression intensity of imperative sentences in special ways.