Imperatives via questions

[cbmvax!uunet!gnu.ai.mit.edu!bob]

In English (at least, in middle-class American English) adults issue
imperatives/requests through questions:

    Could you tell me the way to the `Chef's Delight'?

    Could you pass the coffee?

    Could you tell me where the POSIX standards' manual is?

Children are taught to issue imperatives/requests using `please':

    Please give me a cookie.

I have watched parents tell a child to use `please' at a dinner table,
but never themselves use `please' because all their polite
imperatives/requests use the question form.  This can be confusing to
the child.  Also, children, at least, those of a certain age, are not
supposed to mimic the adult form of politeness.

As far as I can see, the American child pattern, with `please'
followed by an imperative, is the more straightforward and I encourage
its use in Lojban.

Incidently, many of the computer programmers I meet persist, even as
adults, in interpreting question-styled imperatives/requests as
questions.  "Can you tell me where the POSIX standards' manual is?"
"Yes."  ...  "Oh, you want me to tell you where it is; why didn't you
say so; it is fallen down behind the desk."

Also, I have noticed that the `please' followed by an imperative form
is much easier for people to understand for whom English is an as yet
partially learned second language.

    Robert J. Chassell               bob@gnu.ai.mit.edu
    Rattlesnake Mountain Road        (413) 298-4725 or (617) 253-8568 or
    Stockbridge, MA 01262-0693 USA   (617) 876-3296 (for messages)