Using 'myself' and 'yourself'?

Question

I've noticed a lot of odd uses of 'myself' and 'yourself' over the last year or so.

Examples:

Would that be OK for yourself?
Send it to myself.
We can deliver it to yourself on...

Personally I'd say 'Would that be OK for you?, 'Send it to me', etc.

Does anyone know where this came from? I mostly seem to hear it from sales and customer service people.

Answer 1

I think it all stems from confusion about when it is proper to use "I" or "me", especially in compound constructions.

In grade school folks are drilled in NOT using "Bob and me" as the subject of a sentence. Unfortunately, they often end up using "Bob and I" as the OBJECT, when they SHOULD say "Bob and me".

So, there is confusion about when to use "I" and "me" (esp in compounds). If people are also a little unclear about the proper use of the reflexive/intensive pronoun"(my)self" (etc) people came to think of "myself" as a handy substitute for "I" or "me" (which, of course, it is not).

It also may sound a bit more "humble" (because it's less direct?) to refer to "myself" instead of "me" or "I".

The use of "yourself" in the same way is more recent, and apparently based on analogy with the misuse of "myself".

Answer 2

It came from the fact that education is rubbish today, children are coming out of school without a proper education, they don't learn to spell, they don't learn grammar, cannot put a sentence together, not even knowing the difference between a noun, adjective, verb etc, they learn to speak before they reach school, copying how their parents speak. We now have 2 or 3 generations of poorly educated people and it's time to get back to the old fashioned method of teaching and concentrate on the 3 R's.

Answer 3

Generally people with poor education like to use reflexive pronouns because they sound more important. The only correct use is when the same person is both subject and object of the verb.

Answer 4

I think it's more formal to refer to someone you're talking to as 'yourself' but like you say it's pretty rare. The Irish seem to use that kind of language quite a lot. Good observation!

Answer 5

It's an Americanism if I'm not mistaken.....

"you" could be referring to a group of people, but "yourself" can only refer to one person, and as such it's seen as more of a personal touch, even though it's grammatically incorrect.

Answer 6

Your take on this is the better way to speak.

Answer 7

iv never noticed that =S
xx