Author Topic: "Myself"  (Read 3168 times)

Monkeyleg

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"Myself"
« on: March 17, 2007, 08:29:43 PM »
There was a thread weeks ago about the butchery of the English language. For whatever reason, the word "myself" has popped up more frequently of late, and it's really irritating me. (Sorry, I meant to say that it was really irritating "myself").

To an extent, the words "me" or "I" or "myself" can be interchangeable.

Usually, though, the word "me" is the more appropriate term. But it seems that people want to sound more intelligent than they really are.

My teachers from the 1950's taught me to take references to others out of a sentence in order to establish whether the grammar was correct. For example, remove "my wife" from the sentence "my wife and myself took a trip down to Memphis."

Remove "my wife" from the sentence, and it sounds ridiculous.

Picayunne stuff, I know. But it bugs me.




Gewehr98

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #1 on: March 17, 2007, 08:39:57 PM »
Something's changed over the years, Dick.

From the days we had phonics class, (remember that?) I was taught to use "I" as the pronoun of choice when the sentence listed an accomplice and one's self.  One was also instructed to use the first person descriptive pronoun in the latter position.

ie, "She and I" went for a banana split at Dairy Queen.

I don't see that used much in the written word these days. 

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Snowdog

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #2 on: March 17, 2007, 08:41:06 PM »
It bugs me when Cheerios fall out of my bowl after pouring in too much milk.   undecided grin



Perd Hapley

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #3 on: March 17, 2007, 08:44:57 PM »
May I grouse about "whenever"? 

"Whenever my first child was born - "
"How many times did you give birth to the child?"
"Huh?"
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bedlamite

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #4 on: March 17, 2007, 09:18:34 PM »
May I grouse about "whenever"? 

Whenever you like. 
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Monkeyleg

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #5 on: March 17, 2007, 09:57:34 PM »
Snowdogs, no doubt it would bug myself if Cheerios fell out of the bowl when I poured milk on themselves.

But, seeing as how whenever myself pours Cheerios is seldom, perhaps my complaint has fallen of the deaf ears of those of us who would like to keep the English language intact and coherent.

Whenever that happens. Wink

zahc

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #6 on: March 17, 2007, 10:01:47 PM »
I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
Maybe a rare occurence, but then you only have to get murdered once to ruin your whole day.
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Snowdog

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #7 on: March 17, 2007, 11:20:49 PM »
Grammar is as important to myself as the next guyself, but sometimes I find I can circumvent rebuke after committing a verbal faux pas (intentional or otherwise).

People tend to leave your spoken grammar unchallenged when you obsessively check your shirt pocket while chatting with them.  This immunity is enhanced when placing the middle and index finger under both your eyes then point at the fellow talking to you in an "I'm watching you" gesture.
An effective alternative is to have an about-to-sneeze expression frozen on your face after you’ve made a grammatical blunder.  This generally forestalls any favors or tasks that they may have had planned for you as well. 

I do not understand why it takes so much more caffeine these days just to remain lucid.

Bogie

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #8 on: March 17, 2007, 11:25:53 PM »
Anyone else here like Sly and the Family Stone?
 
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K Frame

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #9 on: March 18, 2007, 04:56:54 AM »
[royal accent]Weself are NOT amused[/royal accent]
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Cromlech

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #10 on: March 18, 2007, 05:23:27 AM »
Another one that annoys me, is one that I only hear online.

"I could care less."

To which I might reply :

"Oh really, so you are not entirely disinterested, then?"

This is a case of people misusing the phrase "I couldn't care less."
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K Frame

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #11 on: March 18, 2007, 05:24:24 AM »
You know what they say, Cromlech...

The proof is in the pudding.
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Cromlech

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #12 on: March 18, 2007, 05:34:13 AM »
You know what they say, Cromlech...

The proof is in the pudding.

I suppose so.  sad I just like to be a pedantic git.
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K Frame

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #13 on: March 18, 2007, 05:36:05 AM »
Just to be sure, you do know what the proper saying is, right?
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Cromlech

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #14 on: March 18, 2007, 05:40:31 AM »
Just to be sure, you do know what the proper saying is, right?

Proper saying for which one?


 EDIT: Do you mean "It would be impossible for me to care less than I do because I do not care at all."?
When in deadly danger, when beset by doubt, run in little circles, wave your arms and shout!

K Frame

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #15 on: March 18, 2007, 05:48:11 AM »
No, no. The "proof is in the pudding" is an incorrect saying.

It's really "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." From Don Quixote.
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Cromlech

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #16 on: March 18, 2007, 05:51:20 AM »
Haha, I missed that as well.  shocked
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Art Eatman

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #17 on: March 18, 2007, 06:22:05 AM »
"I" and "me" aren't interchangeable, although a bunch of TV announcers don't seem to know the difference--particularly during a broadcast of a football game or a Nascar race. Cheesy

"I" is always a subject of action; "me" is always an object of action.  It's never the reverse.  Dunno why that's hard to remember.

And where'n'ell did "woken" come from?  I see it used quite a lot, these days.  It seems to have replaced "awakened", which is the correct word for the application.

To me, sloppy use of language is indicative of sloppy thinking, which tells me not to loan money to such folks. Cheesy

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TMM

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #18 on: March 18, 2007, 06:43:44 AM »
And then there's the movie that my friend said he had "boughten" the other day.

K Frame

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #19 on: March 18, 2007, 06:46:25 AM »
"And then there's the movie that my friend said he had "boughten" the other day."

Lord, what a 'tard.

EVERYONE knows it's boughtted!  laugh
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MattC

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #20 on: March 18, 2007, 10:04:38 AM »
Here at a university of political correctness, one may find "themself" used in an attempt to avoid assigning a gender to a person under discussion and yet wanting to form a possesive.  There is a strong stigma against using the appropriate "itself" when allowing a non-gendered noun possesion.

During my education pre-college, "myself" was graded as an appropriate word that lends to a mature tone.  But the sentence, "She and myself went bowling," and, "He gave it to myself," would not pass.  It was more along the lines of, "As for myself," and "myself included."

The English language has always been one of incorrectness and mutability, however.  As an interesting side-note, ebonics shares traits with archaic pre-modern English grammar and pronounciation.

Like mentioned above, mis-spoken cliches irritate me.  The mis-use of "well" and "good" irritates me as well.  Not yet mentioned, however, is the irritation caused by a narrow vocabulary.  For example, college students should know the words "sensational" and "diffuse."

Standing Wolf

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #21 on: March 18, 2007, 02:57:37 PM »
Monkeyleg:

Let me know if you don't have an E-mail message from me, eh?

Thanks,
Standing Wolf
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Bob F.

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #22 on: March 18, 2007, 03:07:04 PM »
We need to start with the teachers; many of them don't set the best of examples, and the rules have changed. The old rules we learned are too difficult.
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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #23 on: March 18, 2007, 05:05:10 PM »
Austin Powers:
"Please allow myself to introduce...
...myself (?)" rolleyes

K Frame

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Re: "Myself"
« Reply #24 on: March 18, 2007, 05:05:57 PM »
"Like mentioned above..."

You mean AS mentioned above?  angel
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