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May 10[edit]

Formal identity between intensifier and reflexive pronoun[edit]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

Which makes the encouragement "Cook yourself!" ambiguous. --Lambiam 23:08, 10 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

Ambiguous? Not to Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes. Mathglot (talk) 03:12, 11 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]