I've just been thinking that if verb + なさい constructions are a combination of
verb stem + なさる's 命令形, how on earth is something like しなさい possible. they both
mean "do", don't they ("do do!) perhaps I'm completely over-thinking this. Is
there a reason as to why なさい can't be used its own?
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2013-12-04T16:56:09.523
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imperatives
Confusion about し＋なさい ("do + do"?)
Personally I'd avoid trying to do some deep grammatical analysis of this.
Perhaps someone else can chime in on the historical and etymological aspects.

We simply say やめなさい or おすわりなさい. It was one of the first grammatical forms I
learned after getting married to a Japanese woman. :-) These can be viewed as
informal variants of やめてください or すわってください or おすわりください. It's simply the
grammatical rule that the なさい is preceded by the 体言止め form such as やめ or すわり,
which in the case of する is し. So yes, it's お掃除しなさい, for example.
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2013-12-04T21:20:49.897
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The suffix なさい does not function like the verb なさる ("to do").

Syntactically:

  * the suffix なさい attaches to the 連用形 of verbs
  * the verb なさる behaves essentially exactly like する: it is either is on its own, or attaches to the root of any suru-verb.

Semantically:

  * the suffix なさい makes the verb into an imperative and provides no honorification (it almost provides the opposite by indicating the addressee is in a position lower than the speaker)
  * the verb なさる means "to do" and provides subject honorification.

So to me, the なさい in しなさい is unrelated to "to do", it simply converts する into
an imperative. (If you don't buy that a form of なさる can perform as a purely
grammatical element, consider what function the "do" in "I do not know" is
performing.)

Regarding the construction 漢語名詞＋なさい (e.g., 結婚なさい), [it is
productive](http://home.alc.co.jp/db/owa/jpn_npa?sn=184), and according to
@TokyoNagoyaさん, it seems to have a different, slightly softer connotation than
the 〜しなさい construction. I am not sure where exactly it falls on politeness
spectrum of the various different imperatives
(〜しろ、〜して、〜してくれ、〜してください、〜しなさい、〜なさい, etc.）.
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2013-12-04T21:27:28.703
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