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Are all the three following sentences paraphrases of the sentence:

It's impossible for me not to laugh when he starts singing.

  1. I can't help laughing when he starts singing.
  2. I can't help myself from laughing when he starts singing.
  3. I can't help but laugh when he starts singing.
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    What would make you think otherwise?
    – DW256
    Commented Apr 8, 2021 at 10:30
  • DW256, the words "but" and "from" have an implied negation in some contexts. But not here, so it might be confusing. Especially when "I can can't help and laugh" also means "I can't help but laugh." One would expect a substitution of "and" for "but" to alter the meaning. In this case, it leaves the meaning the same.
    – perpetual
    Commented Apr 8, 2021 at 11:06
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    Reflexive I can't help myself from laughing isn't very idiomatic compared to I can't stop myself from laughing. Also note that in principle, there's a difference between not being able to help doing something and not being able to stop doing it, even if in practice the semantic distinction is meaningless / irrelevant in many contexts.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Apr 8, 2021 at 11:14
  • @FF Looking at the examples given under 'cannot help myself from laughing' gives one cause to doubt the accuracy of Google ngrams and the acceptability of the string. I've found one actual example of the string, and that in a book I wouldn't recommend.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Apr 8, 2021 at 11:33
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    Examples 1 and 3 denote the same. 2 is less heard.
    – Ram Pillai
    Commented Apr 8, 2021 at 12:18

2 Answers 2

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Yes, they all mean the same thing. The simplest form is

I can only laugh when he starts singing.

The "help" is a negation term. It implies you have an instinctive behavior and you require "help" to override the instinct. Notice the opposite meanings of

  1. I can't help laughing.
  2. I can't force laughing.

In the first case, you are laughing. In the second case, you are unable to laugh. That gives some intuition that "help" is the opposite of "force". It is used to mean "deny" or "stop" or "not".

  1. I can't help laughing.
  2. I can't stop laughing.
  3. I can't not be laughing.

Those three mean the same thing.

Then the complexity comes: In your examples 2 and 3, there is a third negation term. "but" and "from" are also negation terms, but they don't do anything. English has a hard time with counting negatives, and putting three negatives together seems to have the same meaning as putting 3 together.

  • I can't not laugh = I can help but laugh = I can't help but laugh = I can't help bug not laugh

At some point, it just gets confusing, and the most likely assumed meaning is the one that stops trying to count the negatives. Strictly speaking you can parse those to be opposites of each other. But you are asking for trouble if you expect a native speaker to assume you intended them to do the correct number of negations. The colloquial use of this sort of phrase is "I was laughing" (based on context). Anything else is assumed to be a fancy way of saying that, even if the number of negations technically means "I was not laughing"

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  • I don't understand the point you're making about multiple negations cancelling out, but I don't think it's right to say but is a "negating" term in this context. I cam't help laughing means I'm unable to avoid laughing (hence I must laugh), and I can't help but laugh means I'm unable to do anything except laugh (so again, I must laugh). There's no real concept of additional negation in the second version there.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Apr 8, 2021 at 11:33
  • Are you giving 'can't help myself from laughing' the seal of approval?
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Apr 8, 2021 at 11:34
  • Consider "I can't laugh at that" vs "I can't but laugh at that". When there is only one other negation in, the but is a negating term. When there is 0 other negating terms, the but is emphasizing rather than negating. "I can laugh" = "I can but laugh".
    – perpetual
    Commented Apr 8, 2021 at 11:38
  • Edwin Ashworth, I'm not a holder of English seals of approval. But I'd say the meaning is clear. I wouldn't use any of these multiple negations in a court of law, but in conversation, a native speaker will just assume you're trying to say you were laughing and not give the number of negations too much thought. I'd guess "I can't help but not stop from laughing" would be instantly parsed as "I was laughing".
    – perpetual
    Commented Apr 8, 2021 at 11:45
  • I'm saying that 'I can't help myself from laughing' is (possibly) grammatical only if you're trying to help yourself to a creamcake from the counter when the Marx Brothers are being chased round the cafe. It sounds very unnatural IMO in the UK used for 'I can't hold in my laughter'.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Apr 8, 2021 at 18:13
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The idiomatic constructions can help (X-self from)+ V-ing, and can help but + V are Negative Polarity Items (NPI). That means that, like ever or take long, they can only occur grammatically in a negative environment. Outside a negative context (which includes more than you might imagine), NPIs are ungrammatical.
(Ungrammatical sentences are marked with an asterisk *)

  • She hasn't ever been there.

  • *She has ever been there

  • They said this wouldn't take long.

  • *They said this would take long

  • I can't help (myself from) laughing when I see it.

  • *I can help (myself from) laughing when I see it.

  • I can't help but laugh when I see it.

  • *I can help but laugh when I see it

And all these idioms have the same meaning (when used grammatically in the negative, at least), so...
Yes, they are all paraphrases of the double negative sentence that you cite.

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    I'm admittedly judging subjectively, but I'd say 'I can't help myself from laughing when I see it' sounds very unnatural in the UK.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Apr 8, 2021 at 18:13
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    Yeah, stop ... from would be better. But idioms do get conflated, as we see daily here. Especially in non-native Englishes, most especially with rare, obscure, literary, or otherwise highly faluting words and constructions.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Apr 8, 2021 at 18:36

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