[Decimus]

Originally Posted by RickOShay

Anyhow I misunderstood the meaning of imperative as you are using it apparently cuz I always thought it to be a command or request. So if that is what robhol meant too, then I still disagree with him.

...

I thought that I was being careful in making sure the meaning of 'Imperative' was clear enough, as I defined the (official meaning of the) word 'Imperative' no less than three times (including via embedded links), starting from post #6.

Oh well, glad that misunderstanding is out of the way. Which brings us to...

Originally Posted by RickOShay

...and that nobody would ever say おやすみなさい to mean "Go to bed".

I don't think that anybody in this thread has ever mentioned that 「おやすみなさい」 means "Go to bed". This includes robhol:

Originally Posted by robhol

Both of them are used as "sleep tight" or "good night" or something to that effect. Literally, the former means rest (noun) while the latter is an imperative.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Adverb

literally (not comparable)

1. (speech act) Word for word; not as an idiom or metaphor.

When he said Houston weather is warm and you never need a long sleeve shirt, I literally threw all my long sleeve shirts away!

2. Simply; with reference to the first meaning of a word.

Ants got into my computer and literally scrambled my data: Bugs were in my hardware.

I think his meaning is clear enough, and his use of the word 'imperative' seems close to the definition I have provided after his post. That said, you might prefer for him to come and clarify matters in person.

Also,

Originally Posted by RickOShay

And yes your article is certainly an authoritative source, however, in practical terms i think it is more significant how the everyday native speaker of a language feels about its usage. After all language changes and it is the speakers who change it.

I rather not debate over the validity of this passage right now, so I suppose I'll just point out that you are moving the goalposts. (i.e. by changing the original argument.) 'though I have a feeling that this stems from a misunderstanding (of the original argument) instead of being intentional.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll need to blow off some steam now, as finding out that huge chunks of my posts are being selectively ignored is a particularly sore point of mine. I rather believe that it's no fault of yours (language barrier, maybe.), but I think I'll need to retire now anyway before I say anything that I would regret later.