Is there such a thing as a list in scalar context?

Question

my $mind = ( \'a\', \'little\', \'confused\' );

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And it\'s because perldoc perlfaq4 explains the line above as follows (emphasis added):

Answer 1

Just ask Perl!

>perl -MO=Concise,-exec -e"my $s = ($x, $y, $z);"
1  <0> enter
2  <;> nextstate(main 1 -e:1) v:{
3  <0> pushmark v
4  <#> gvsv[*x] s
5  <#> gvsv[*y] s
6  <#> gvsv[*z] s
7  <@> list sKP                      <--- list in (s)calar context.
8  <0> padsv[$s:1,2] sRM*/LVINTRO
9  <2> sassign vKS/2
a  <@> leave[1 ref] vKP/REFC

So yes, one can have a list in scalar context.

One cannot return a list in scalar context. (Well, it is possible from XS, but the program will crash, probably with a "Bizarre copy" error.)

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It can't be any other way. If there was a distinct list op and comma op, it would be impossible to compile the following:

sub f { "a", "b", "c" }

Would that result in a list op or a comma op? In reality, there is no such distinction, so yes, it results in that op.