Imperative Structures in Travel Guides

Abstract

The aim of this bachelor's thesis is to examine the occurrence and use of the imperative in the discourse of travel guides. In the theoretical section, the student will define the concept of the imperative based on relevant scholarly literature, present a typology of imperative sentences from a morphosyntactic perspective, and describe the communicative (illocutionary) functions of the imperative in the context of speech acts. Furthermore, the student will introduce the travel guide genre and its functions and briefly summarize the main differences between written and spoken discourse within the chosen genre. Subsequently, the author will analyse the created corpus with the aim of identifying the communicative intent of imperative structures. In the practical section, the author will describe the forms of the imperative, clarify the pragmatic functions of imperative sentences depending on the context, and summarize their specific features and roles in spoken and written travel guides.