Abstract
The article focuses on the occurrence of the imperative in spoken and written discourse. It identifies the most frequent imperatives in the following corpora: DIALOG (spoken Czech in the media), ORAL (intimate discourse), and SYN2015 (written Czech).
Imperative forms of the verb počkat 'wait' have the highest frequency in spoken corpora. An analysis of the imperative forms of počkat in spoken language reveals that its most common function is to interrupt another speaker's thread of speech.
Depending on the type of dialogue, the interruption can be motivated either by adding or refining information (in a friendly conversation) or trying to get the speaker to answer a question he or she has failed or did not want to answer (in political debates). Using an imperative can also initiate a repair sequence, even one targeted at oneself.
It also serves to prevent turn yielding. For these reasons, it often appears in overlaps.