Quote:
Originally Posted by Decimus
The imperative mood, despite the name, does not necessarily have to refer to commands, and may refer equally to requests as well.
Attaching 「-てください」, 「-いなさい」 and 「-てちょうだい」 (among others) changes the mood of a phrase into the imperative mood. Since this is a 'grammatical concept', (and if I recall correctly), this remains true regardless of the speaker's intention.
Now, most Japanese would neither interpret 「おやすみなさい」 as a command nor as a request, but then again the interpretation of a lot of common phrases also differ from their literal meanings (「ありがとう」、「こんにちは」、
「すみません」、「ごめんなさい」, for example.). Furthermore, Robhol used the word "literally".
As such, I believe that robhol is technically correct.
TL;DR version: 「おやすみなさい」=Good night. It literally means "Please rest." 「おやすみ」 also means "Good night", but is less formal than 「おやすみなさい」. |
I was just saying they do not attach an お at the beginning of imperative phrases... have you ever heard of someone saying おたべなさい？ In the same way I do not think おやすみなさい is ever used to have an imperative meaning. It is just politely saying "good night".