The present volume has been prepared by the Language Typology Workshop of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Linguistic Research. The book continues the earlier studies of the Workshop addressing grammatical categories of the verb linked to the semantic and syntactic structure of the sentence: (ed. A.A. Kholodovich) Typology of Causative Constructions, Nauka: Leningrad, 1969; (ed. A.A. Kholodovich) Typology of Passive Constructions, Nauka: Leningrad, 1974; (ed. V.P. Nedjalkov) Typology of Resultative Constructions, Amsterdam, 1988; (ed. V.S. Xrakovskij) Typology of Iterative Constructions, LINCOM EUROPA, Munchen, 1997; etc. The monograph focuses on imperative sentences and verb forms used in them. The main objective of this work is, by proceeding from the universal definition of the imperative concept, to describe the imperative sentences from the angle of language typology. The volume consists of three parts. Part 1 contains two chapters: Chapter 1, outlining the theoretical concept of the research, and Chapter 2, presenting a questionnaire on imperative sentences and imperative verb forms. Part 2 contains 23 chapters on imperative sentences in structurally different languages: Aleut, Armenian, Bamana, Cambodian, English, Eskimo, Ewe, French, German, Gypsy, Hausa, Hebrew, Indonesian, Japanese, Kerek, Klamath, Maori, Mongol, Nivkh, Tagalog, Turkic languages, Vietnamese, and Javanese. These 23 chapters are grouped into five sections in consistence with five types of languages that are singled out basing on two major attributes: (i) presence or absence of a specific imperative person/number paradigm, and (ii) homogeneity or non-homogeneity of the forms in the imperative paradigm. Part 3 provides an alternative interpretation of the imperative paradigm that differs from the theory developed in the preceding chapters both in its general approach and in specific aspects of analysis. The contributors to the volume are: researchers from Saint Petersburg Institute of Linguistic Research (Agus Salim, T. G. Akimova, L. A. Biriulin, N. B. Vaxtin, A. P. Volodin, E. V. Golovko, E. Yu. Gruzdeva, I. B. Dolinina, N. A. Kozintseva, E. E. Kordi, D. M. Nasilov, A. Yu. Rusakov, M. A. Smirnova, N. M. Spartar, V. A. Stegnij, V. S. Xrakovskij), Oriental Faculty of the Saint Petersburg State University (I. S. Bystrov, N. A. Dobronravin, E. A. Kuzmenkov, L. V. Malygina, A. K. Ogloblin, G. E. Rachkov), as well as linguists from other research institutions of Russia, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam: X. F. Isxakova, and M. S. Polinskaja (Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences), V. M. Alpatov (Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences), M. B. Bergelson (Institute of the Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences), Kofi O. Agbodjo and V. P. Litvinov (Pyatigorsk Pedagogical Institute), S. M. Kibardina (Vologda Pedagogical Institute), Sh. S. Safarov (Samarkand Pedagogical Institute), and N. V. Stankevich (Hanoi University). The book is supplied with an extensive bibliography.