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The Semiotic Status of Commands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Herbert Gaylord Bohnert
Herbert Gaylord Bohnert*
Affiliation:
Chicago, Ill.
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Extract

The large number of writers who have in recent years attacked the problem of the logical nature of commands appear generally in agreement in accepting the distinction of common grammar between imperative and declarative sentences as representing, albeit in no clear one-to-one manner, some real difference in the logical character of the two types of expression, and possibly in the psychological sign-functioning mechanism itself. The crucial logical difference adduced is that commands can apparently rot be classified as true or false. One is then, however, confronted with the problem of interpreting arguments involving imperatives which appear syllogistic in form, such as:

Keep your promises!

You promised to pay on Wednesday.

Pay on Wednesday!

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , October 1945 , pp. 302 - 315
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association 1945

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