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These people only care about themselves.

Is this sentence ambiguous?

  1. Each of them cares for himself or herself

  2. They care about themselves as a group and take care of each other.

I'd think it would tend to mean '1', but I think there is ambiguity.

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Only the first choice, i.e., being self-serving, is a likely interpretation, because the second would probably be expressed as "These people only care about their group [or clique]."

Even though plural, "themselves," as a reflexive pronoun, is usually interpreted as each individual in the group, not the group as a whole.

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  • Thank you very much, Dr, Pippik, But what if I say 'They only protected themselves.' Couldn't that concern the group?
    – azz
    Commented May 26, 2022 at 7:37
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    Personally, I'd see that as meaning that each person acted for himself or herself -- particularly because standard English has no singular, third-person pronoun that does not show the persons sex, and many use "they" or "them" in place of "him" and "her" where the sex of the person is unknown, or immaterial. For example, "His friend came over, and I gave them the book," is now acceptable informal English. Yes, "them" is classically singular, but usage changes.
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Commented May 26, 2022 at 17:14

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