On a recent newscast on CNN, an analyst said,
Trump's lawyers want to avoid questions that might challenge his recollection and lead him to perjure himself.
Hearing this got me to thinking about the nature of the word perjure in that it can only be applied to oneself. Someone else can't perjure you, you can only perjure yourself.
I wondered if there was a term for this, and in searching on Google I found this Wikipedia page on "reflexive verbs", and it actually uses "perjure" as an example. But the wording is a little confusing and implies that many verbs can function as reflexive verbs but they are not always used this way. On the other hand, "perjure" as used in the Wikipedia example seems to be a case where it is always reflexive.
In grammar, a reflexive verb is, loosely, a verb whose direct object is the same as its subject, for example, "I wash myself". More generally, a reflexive verb has the same semantic agent and patient (typically represented syntactically by the subject and the direct object). For example, the English verb to perjure is reflexive since one can only perjure oneself.
Is there a term for verbs that are limited or mostly limited to reflexive use, such as perjure? Are there other words, or a whole category of words, that can only be used this way?
