imperatives

[HDungo at aol.com]

Regarding Jill de Viliers suggestion to ask a child about imperatives I have 
come across an example in the transcripts for my thesis which may interest 
you.

In this particular part of the interview the children read some conversations 
and then judge them, what I'm actually looking for is judgement of 
inappropriate polite language, but one little ( 8 years old) French boy (in 
the French version of my tests) judged the conversation this way :

il dit prête moi ta voiture il le dit au présent donc toute suite et après 
les clés il les donne après 
( he said lend me your car he said it in the present so straight away and 
after the keys he gives them after ).

Without going into the details of the conversation and when the person 
actually gets the keys, he's judging the imperative it seems to me ....

Regards
Harriet Dunbar.