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Anonymous Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
Austen usage
How do you like the reflexive pronoun use here?
"Oh!" she cried in evident embarrassment, "it all meant nothing; a mere joke among ourselves."
From: Emma, by Jane Austen.
"Oh!" she cried in evident embarrassment, "it all meant nothing; a mere joke among ourselves."
From: Emma, by Jane Austen.
Top answer
I can't say that it's my favourite quotation from Emma.
- I can't say that it's my favourite quotation from Emma.
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14 Answers
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What's to like or not to like? It's a natural use of the pronoun after a preposition.
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PhilipWhat's to like or not to like? It's a natural use of the pronoun after a preposition.But the reflexive pronoun has no overt antecedent.
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The context of the dialogue provides the antecedent. Not every sentence will include all the things referred to.
If I say "Please set it down over there" you would presumably know what "it" was because you were holding it.
If I say "Please set it down over there" you would presumably know what "it" was because you were holding it.
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BarbaraPAThe context of the dialogue provides the antecedent. Not every sentence will include all the things referred to.If I say "Please set it down over there" you would presumably know what "it" was because you were holding it.Then why not use "us" intead of "ourselves"?
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So this also would be OK, right?
John and myself wanted to go away fro the weekend.
John and myself wanted to go away fro the weekend.
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I do not believe that 'myself' (or any other -self) should be used as the subject of a sentence. It seems to be gaining in popularity, unfortunately. I imagine it started with somebody thinking it just sounded more sophisticated than a simple "I".
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AnonymousThen why not use "us" intead of "ourselves"?The reflexive is also used to indicate reciprocity. Here, that might mean that they use it.
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