Positive Imperatives When Telling Someone Not to Do Something


A lot of times, when someone says something stupid or ridiculous, the reply
they get is「バカいえ！」, or when someone says something that's obviously a lie,
they will be told 「ウソつけ！」. I've also heard 「ふざけろ」 used similarly. I was
wondering, why is it that Japanese likes to use positive imperatives at times
like these even though the intent is clearly to call someone out on something
or get them to stop? What is the actual implied meaning of these phrases?




This was discussed some [here in a question about
うそおっしゃい](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/18243/is-%E3%81%86%E3%81%9D%E3%81%8A%E3%81%A3%E3%81%97%E3%82%83%E3%81%84-to-
be-taken-literally-here). A similar construction happens in English, as in the
famous Dirty Harry line, [_"Go ahead, make my
day."_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_ahead,_make_my_day) The speaker is
telling the listener to _"do XXX"_ , with the implication that the speaker
will respond immediately by beating the listener in some way. The resulting
meaning is thus _" **don't** do XXX"_ -- basically, a positive imperative is
used to express a negative imperative.




This was discussed some [here in a question about
うそおっしゃい](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/18243/is-%E3%81%86%E3%81%9D%E3%81%8A%E3%81%A3%E3%81%97%E3%82%83%E3%81%84-to-
be-taken-literally-here). A similar construction happens in English, as in the
famous Dirty Harry line, [_"Go ahead, make my
day."_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_ahead,_make_my_day) The speaker is
telling the listener to _"do XXX"_ , with the implication that the speaker
will respond immediately by beating the listener in some way. The resulting
meaning is thus _" **don't** do XXX"_ -- basically, a positive imperative is
used to express a negative imperative.

