UMLR — Ambiguity of operation "Classifier::general()" and association end "/general"

The owned end "/general" of the association "A_general_classifier", which is a directed self-referencing loop from Classifier to itself, is described as follows on page 175 of the PDF file of the UML 2.5.1 reference under section 9.9.4.6 "Association Ends":

/general : Classifier [0..*] (opposite A_general_classifier::classifier)
The generalizing Classifiers for this Classifier.

However, there is also an operation "general()" described on page 176 under 9.9.4.7 "Operations":

general() : Classifier [0..*]
The general Classifiers are the ones referenced by the Generalization relationships.

and is implemented in OCL:

body: parents()

An element cannot be its own parent. Therefore, what is the semantic purpose of the association? As I understand it, an element cannot generalize itself; otherwise, there would be a cycle in the generalization hierarchy.