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 2 months 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 2 months ago
avattar@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
How about this phrase: “Make sure you daughter behaves herself”
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
The daughter is behaving herself, not behaving someone else. In English, we don’t say “behave your daughter”
Stillwater@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I think its referring to the phrase “Behave yourself” - who else am I gonna behave?
marlowe221@lemmy.world 2 months 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 2 months ago
Yes, exactly