Licensing free choice any on an existential semantics for imperatives

Abstract

This paper seeks to explain why free choice any is licensed in strong imperatives and weak imperatives but not under strong modals. It argues that this contrast can be accounted for on the assumption that, instead of a strong (universal) modal, strong imperatives contain a weak (existential) modal that is strengthened by exhaustification (Schwager, 2005; Oikonomou, 2016). On this view, strong and weak imperatives have an identical structure at the point where the licensing of any is checked.