| The dissertation concerns non-imperative uses of the morphological imperative in contemporary Russian and interprets such uses as a phenomenon of transposition, which is intrinsically metaphorical. The goal is to explicate the semantic connection between the imperative and the transposition of the imperative, which traditional Russian grammarians are vague about, and to explore the motivation for the transposition.;Three types of transposition of the imperative are studied: the obligative, the narrative, and the conditional. The prerequisite for this study is an understanding of the imperative's general meaning, which I postulate as consisting of the semantic features scDIRECTIVE and scPERSONAL INVOLVEMENT. This general meaning is then combined with the interaction theory and cognitive grammar theory of metaphor to form the hypothesis of the dissertation. That is, during transposition, the feature scDIRECTIVE is more likely to be canceled or changed and the feature scPERSONAL INVOLVEMENT is more likely to be preserved.;The investigation of the three types on the one hand shows the semantic change brought about by transposition, and on the other hand explicates the semantic connection between the imperative and the transposed uses of the imperative. In the obligative and conditional types, the semantic connection includes both semantic features of the imperative. However, in the conditional type the feature scDIRECTIVE undergoes a more dramatic change than in the obligative since what is being preserved after the transposition is only the conditional relation entailed in the feature scDIRECTIVE of the imperative. In the obligative type the feature scDIRECTIVE of the imperative is largely preserved. The narrative type on the other hand completely cancels the feature scDIRECTIVE and the only semantic contact it maintains with the imperative is through the feature scPERSONAL INVOLVEMENT. These findings fully support the hypothesis.;The motivation for transposition is explored from a cognitive grammar point of view. It is found that the obligative, the narrative, and the conditional imperative all have the same motivation. That is, presenting obligation, narrative, and condition in terms of the meaning of the imperative affords the native speaker a more direct and immediate understanding and experience of these categories of meaning. |
