Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2022 May 10

= May 10 =

Formal identity between intensifier and reflexive pronoun
What does the text "formal identity between intensifier and reflexive pronoun" in article Brittonicisms in English mean? I have no idea, an it interests me, because Finnish has the same feature. Can someone explain it? --40bus (talk) 19:24, 10 May 2022 (UTC)


 * It means that for example himself can be used either as a reflexive pronoun, as in "he washes himself" (= takes a bath), or as an intensifier, as in "he himself washes something". --Theurgist (talk) 21:28, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Which makes the encouragement "Cook yourself!" ambiguous. --Lambiam 23:08, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Isn't that what commas are for, like in the old "A panda eats, shoots and leaves" joke... 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 03:03, 11 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Ambiguous? Not to Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes. Mathglot (talk) 03:12, 11 May 2022 (UTC)