密歇根新闻广播 解读on behalf of

On behalf¹ of a listener, this week we're raising the question of whether we can speak on behalf of ourselves.

Often at weddings, funerals and other gatherings², there's a moment when someone stands up and says something like, "On behalf of my family and myself, I want to thank you for coming today."

A listener named Suzanne wants to know whether "and myself" is necessary in this expression. She says, "You don't speak on your behalf. You are speaking."

This sounds like a question of redundancy, if you're a member of your own family, is it redundant³ to say, "On behalf of my family and myself"?

From our perspective⁴, if you just say "on behalf of my family, it's unclear whether you agree or disagree with whatever it is you're about to say.

On behalf of means that you're the spokesperson for the group, and a spokesperson may or may not agree with the people for whom they're speaking. If you want to make sure people know that you agree and are not only speaking on behalf of your family, then it seems necessary to include "myself."

We wondered whether Suzanne was also asking whether it's okay to have the reflexive construction of speaking on one's own behalf. If you're speaking, isn't it clear that you're speaking on your own behalf?

The answer is no, because you could be speaking on someone else's behalf. If you look around, there are plenty of uses of "I'm speaking on my own behalf" or "I can speak only on my own behalf."

If you are including yourself in the group for whom you're speaking, it's a reflexive pronoun⁵. That is, you would say "on behalf of my family and myself" as opposed to "on behalf of my family and me."

The expression "on behalf of" actually comes from two expressions smushed together.

Behalf comes from "by" plus "half," meaning "side", so, by someone's side. From there, it's not hard to see how this came to mean that you're speaking for someone or in their interest. The other expression, "on [someone's] half," was another way to talk about being on someone's side.

1 behalf   

n.利益，方面；支持，赞成

参考例句：

• Ken is not present,so I shall accept the prize on his behalf.肯没有出席，所以我将代表他领奖。
• They fixed on him to speak on their behalf.他们已经确定他作为代表发言。

2 gatherings   

聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集

参考例句：

• His conduct at social gatherings created a lot of comment. 他在社交聚会上的表现引起许多闲话。
• During one of these gatherings a pupil caught stealing. 有一次，其中一名弟子偷窃被抓住。

3 redundant   

adj.多余的，过剩的；(食物)丰富的；被解雇的

参考例句：

• There are too many redundant words in this book.这本书里多余的词太多。
• Nearly all the redundant worker have been absorbed into other departments.几乎所有冗员，都已调往其他部门任职。

4 perspective   

n.视角，观点，想法

参考例句：

• You can get a perspective of the whole city from here.从这里你可以看到城市的全景。
• We may get a clear perspective of the people's happy lives.我们知道人民对幸福生活的展望。

5 pronoun   

n.代词

参考例句：

• The relative pronoun is often dropped if it is the subject.关系代名词做受词时常被省略。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。