I’m talking about the phrase “behave yourself”. In the English language, there is no such thing as behaving someone else, only behaving yourself. I don’t know if there’s another language where “behave someone else” makes linguistic sense
Comment on It is linguistically impossible to behave anyone but yourself
snek_boi@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
As in “nobody acts like you”?
Or as in “nobody’s words but your own words can guide your behavior”?
Or as in “nobody but you can describe your own behavior”?
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
avattar@lemmy.sdf.org 3 days ago
How about this phrase: “Make sure you daughter behaves herself”
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
The daughter is behaving herself, not behaving someone else. In English, we don’t say “behave your daughter”
Stillwater@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
I think its referring to the phrase “Behave yourself” - who else am I gonna behave?
marlowe221@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Which is why I often look at my 6 year old son and just say “Behave!”
He knows who I’m talking about.
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
Yes, exactly