Is "Myself" the refuge of idiots?
Sportswriter Red Smith thought so. He said that the pronoun "myself" is the refuge of idiots taught early in life that the pronoun "me" is a dirty word ( Working with Words, 2nd ed., Brian Books and James Pinson, p. 21).
What's wrong with these next two sentences? -If you have questions, you can call Professor Dayton or myself.
-He gave away two free tickets to the ball game, one to Frank and one to myself.
I would not agree with Sportswriter Red Smith. Those whom I've known who misuse the pronoun myself most often are the socially upper-class and college educated.
So, I would say that the pronoun myself is the refuge of the well-to-do, upper-class who were taught early in life that the pronoun me is a vulgar reference to ones' self.
The idea (though wrong) is that the word myself sounds sophisticated, while me sounds crude or coarse.
Myself is the sort of word one says while sipping champagne at the latest Art Gallery Opening, while me is the kind of word one says while swilling down cheap beer at a red-neck bar.
I heard a policeman (who was certainly not an idiot) on the news last week say, "Three officers were the first to arrive at the scene, officer Jenkins, officer Derrick, and myself."
A Brief Look at Nouns and Pronouns 1. Noun: A noun is the name of a person, place, or thing. So, the noun names things. A few examples of proper nouns: January, February, March. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Jesus, Moses, and Paul.
However, some nouns are not proper nouns, and we do not capitalize the first letter of those nouns. For example, dog, man , and woman .
2. Pronouns: Pronouns take the place of nouns.
a. Personal pronouns: I, you, he, she, they, we.
b. Relative pronouns: who, that, which, what.
c. Indefinite pronouns: few, several, one, someone, everyone.
d. Demonstrative pronouns: this, that, those, these.
e. Reflexive and Intensive pronouns: myself, yourself, himself, herself, themselves.
What I want to zero in on in this Coffee Talk are the Reflexive and Intensive pronouns.
And, if you read this short CT, and learn the information herein , you will never misuse the pronoun "myself" again.
Reflexive Pronouns
Since these pronouns are reflexive (i.e., they "reflect back to an earlier pronoun"), you would not use them in a sentence by themselves. They must refer (reflect) back to a person.
For example, you would not say, "Only Bob and myself attended the crusade." Why would you not say this? Because, the reflexive pronoun "myself" is not reflecting back to anyone in this sentence.
Rule of Thumb: You cannot use the pronoun "myself" in a sentence unless the pronoun "I" is used before it.
Did you get that? If the pronoun "I" is not in the sentence before the reflexive pronoun "myself," you cannot use the reflexive pronoun "myself" in that sentence.
If the word "myself" is used in a sentence, that same sentence must have the word "I" in it for the reflexive pronoun "myself" to refer back to.
Example: " I will go to the crusade myself and see if the preacher is preaching heresy." Thus, "myself" refers back to (i.e., is reflexive of) the personal pronoun "I."
Intensive Pronouns
Intensive pronouns "intensify" the pronoun "I."
Examples:
"I myself will go to the crusade and see if the preacher is preaching heresy."
"You yourself said that the preacher was preaching heresy."
So, and this is actually an easy rule to remember, the reflexive pronoun "myself" is never used without the pronoun "I" in the sentence. If the word "I" is not setting the stage for a reflexive or intensive, then the pronoun "myself" should not be used.
What Case Are You In?
Now what word should be used instead of "myself" in these situations?
Well, it really depends on what case the word "myself" is being crammed into. Without getting too technical, let me give some examples again and show you which pronouns should be used. I will place the correct pronoun after the "offending" reflexive pronoun.
# 1. If you have questions, you can call Professor Dayton or myself (me).
# 2. He gave away two free tickets to the ball game, one to Frank and one to myself (me).
# 3. "Three officers were the first to arrive at the scene, officer Jenkins, officer Derrick, and myself" (I).
# 4. "Only Bob and myself (I) attended the crusade."
As you can see, none of these sentences should be using the reflexive pronoun "myself." The first two should be using the (objective case) pronoun "me." And, the last two should be using the (subjective case) pronoun "I."
It would be great if I could just say to my readers, "Just use the proper pronoun for the case it functions in." However, to some who will read this CT, I might as well be writing in Chinese. (For those who would like a quick lesson in "case," I have given a little advanced information about it below--at the bottom of this page).
But, for those of you who don't know what I mean by "case," here is what you can do. Simply try the word "me" or "I" instead of the word "myself," and see if it works.
# 1. Example: If you have questions, you can call Professor Dayton or "I" or "me."
Sometimes when we have another person's name first, it confuses us.
Most mothers, bless their hearts, told us to say the other person's name first, followed by referring to ourselves as "I." But, this is not always correct.
The way to help you figure it out is to simply remove the other person's name and see how it sounds . . .
If you have questions, you can call "I" - "me."
Well, you certainly would not say, "If you have questions, you can call I."
So, obviously, the pronoun needed here is "me."
"If you have questions, you can call me."
Now, some people wince in pain (like when they hear fingernails scratching on the chalkboard) at any use of the word "me." This is why many of them opt for the reflexive pronoun "myself" instead. But, there is nothing wrong with the pronoun "me" when it is used properly.
The Pronoun "Myself" is Not a Catch-All
Some of my students have actually said, "Well, when I'm in doubt, I just use the word myself ."
Friends, using the word "myself" as a catchall does not "get you off the hook." In fact, when a person uses the pronoun "myself" incorrectly, it makes him/her sound like that bad term Red Smith was fond of: an idiot.
# 2. Example: "He gave away two free tickets to the ball game, one to Frank and one to me."
Ok, let's shorten the sentence, reverse its order, and take out the other person: "He gave me a free ticket to the ball game."
Certainly you would not say, "He gave I a free ticket to the ball game."
So, just drop the other name(s), and shorten or reverse the sentence to see how it sounds.
# 3. Example: "Three officers were the first to arrive at the scene, officer Jenkins, officer Derrick, and myself" (I).
Remove the others, shorten, and reverse the structure of the sentence.
"Me was the first officer to arrive at the scene." Of course not.
"I was the first officer to arrive at the scene." Bingo!
# 4. Example: "Only Bob and myself (I) attended the crusade."
"Me attended the crusade." Of course not.
"I attended the crusade."
Let's Review . . .
Rule # 1: If the pronoun "I" does not appear somewhere BEFORE the word myself, then the word "myself" is wrong in that sentence and should not be used.
Rule # 2: The word "me" is not a bad (or dirty) word. It just must be used in its proper case. (Examples; "Do you love me?" (not, "Do you love I?") "My boss fired me!" (Not, "My boss fired I."). And, certainly not, "Do you love myself?" nor "My boss fired myself!" Now, while most people would not say, "My boss fired myself!" they might say, "My boss fired myself and three others!" But, that is still wrong.)
Rule # 3: To discover if the pronoun should be "I" or "me," remove the other names of people in the sentence and see which one works . . . you may have to shorten the sentence, and/or reverse the wording.
Last Point
I would much rather hear people use "I" or "me" incorrectly than hear them misuse the reflexive pronoun "myself."
You might legitimately get confused whether the pronoun should be "I" or "me." But, there is no reason to be confused about the use of the pronoun "myself." It is reflexive, and if it does not reflect back to the word "I" in the same sentence, it is wrong.
Just remember, I myself said so! (Intensive)
And now, I am going to go finish off that pot of coffee all by myself. (reflexive)
A Little Advanced Grammar for Those Who Care
Nouns and pronouns have case: Three Cases.
1. Subjective (nominative): The subjective case does two things: (a) Points out the subject and (b) the predicate nominative .
2. Objective: There are three uses of the objective case: (a) Points out the direct object (b) indirect object , and (c) the object of a preposition .
3. Possessive: Shows possession, i.e., ownership. For example: "Bob's bike." Or the possessive case shows source. For example: "It was found at the river's bottom."
COMPOUND PRONOUNS AND NOUNS
When you have two or more nouns or pronouns in a sentence joined by a coordinating conjunction, they are called compound. Example: "Jeff took my wife and me out to dinner last Friday night." Thus, " wife and me" is compound.
Be careful to use the correct pronoun when you have a compound pronoun/noun. For example, some are in the habit of saying things like, "Jeff took my wife and I out to dinner last Friday night." However, you can tell if this is correct or not by simply removing the first part of the compound and say it like this: "Jeff took I out to dinner last Friday night." This doesn't work. It would be: "Jeff took me out to dinner last Friday night." Thus, the correct compound way to say it is, "Jeff took my wife and me out to dinner last Friday night."
CASE #1. SUBJECTIVE (or NOMINATIVE) CASE
The two main things that the Subjective case does: 1. It identifies the subject, and (2) it identifies the predicate nominative.
1. The Subjective (also called Nominative) case points out the subject of the sentence. Example: "Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town." In this sentence, Jesus is in the subjective case because he is the subject of the sentence (the subject is the person or thing doing the action of the verb). So, when a noun or a pronoun is the subject of the sentence, it is said to be in the subjective (or nominative) case.
2. The Subjective (or Nominative) case points out the predicate nominative . So we must learn what a predicate nominative is. First it is important to know what the term PREDICATE means. Predicate is one of the two main constituents of a sentence, modifying the subject. Thus it PREDICATES OR TELLS SOMETHING ABOUT THE SUBJECT.
Example: "was God" is the predicate in the sentence "The Word was God."
Note: In this sentence the predicate tells us what "the Word" is. Thus, it predicated to us (or told us) something about the Word.
A predicate nominative is a noun or a pronoun that follows the intransitive verb, i.e., the linking verb, such as the word is, or one of its inflections. (is - are - be - am - was - were.)
When a noun or a pronoun follows a linking verb, it is called a predicate nominative . It tells us something about the subject of the sentence, but the predicate nominative remains in the subjective (or nominative) case (thus the name predicate nominative .)
In the sentence, "Jesus is Lord," Lord is the predicate nominative. Lord tells us something about Jesus . So, the noun Lord is the predicate nominative.
Thus, if I answer the phone and someone says, "Is Rick there?" I would not say, "This is me." Why? The word me is in the objective case. The noun or pronoun following the linking verb "is" must always be in the NOMINATIVE (or subjective) case. The personal, first person, masculine pronoun that is in the subjective case is "he." Therefore, I would answer, "This is he."
Therefore, the noun or pronoun that follows the linking verb is called the predicate nominative.
CASE #2. OBJECTIVE CASE
There are three uses of the objective case:
1. As the direct object . Example: "I hit him." Him is in the objective case because it is the direct object of the verb hit . (What is the inflection of him when it is in the subjective case? He .)
2. As the indirect object . Example: "I hit the ball to him." Him is in the objective case in this sentence because it is the indirect object of the verb hit .
3. As the object of a preposition . Example: "Just between you and me." Me is in the objective case, because it is the object of the preposition between . Thus, it is never correct to say, "Just between you and I." Why? Because, the pronoun I is in the subjective case, and the object of a preposition must always be in the objective case.
CASE #3. POSSESSIVE CASE
This means that the word shows possession (ownership). You express the possessive case, generally, by adding an apostrophe and the letter "s."
Examples: "That is the boy's bike." This is one boy and one bike. The word boy is in the possessive case. "Mary's painting won first place." In this sentence, Mary is in the possessive case because she is the owner (or possessor) of the painting. Mary possesses the painting. So, when a noun or a pronoun shows possession, even in the abstract sense, it is said to be in the possessive case.
Example of the abstract sense of possession: "All of Rick's students learned correct grammar." Rick is in the possessive case because the students are his.
=========
Free Class:
For those of you who might be interested: I have produced a lecture series on audio with notes. I cover the basics of good writing, grammar, punctuation, and more. I've had people with Master's degrees and PhDs go through these lectures, and some of them told me that they learned more on this subject from my lectures and notes than they had from all of their previous education combined. You can listen to the lectures for free and downlaod the lecture notes as PDFa files (for free) at CES Writing Protocols Lectures.
Send comments about this, or any, Coffee Talk to Rick Walston at: CES @ ColumbiaSeminary.edu
(Please note that you will need to take the spaces out before and after the @ sign . . . this is placed this way to avoid spam emails.)
