To avoid this problem, English provides a set of special pronouns that sig-
nify a reflexive action:
Singular: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself
Plural: ourselves, yourselves, themselvesThus, to express the idea that Macarena shaved Macarena, we would have 18b:18b. Macarena shaved herself.Usage Note
Sometimes reflexive pronouns work asintensifiers,as in sentences 19 and 20:- Theythemselvesrefused to sign the agreement.
- Weourselvescan’t abide deceit.
On page 63, we saw how nonstandard usage confuses nominative case and ob-
jective case pronouns. People will use a nominative case pronoun in the subject po-
sition, and vice versa. Many people are aware of this problem in their language,
probably as a result of instruction, but they do not know how to fix it. In an attempt
to avoid the problem, at least with respect to the pronounsIandme,they will use a
reflexive pronoun in either the subject or object position, as in sentences 21 and 22:
- ?Macarena, Fritz, and myself went to Catalina.
- ?Buggsy took Fred, Macarena, and myself to Acapulco.
Using a reflexive pronoun to replace a personal pronoun simply creates an-
other problem because there is no reflexive action. Replacing a personal pro-
noun with a reflexive is a violation of standard usage.
Relative Pronouns
As we saw on page 56, dependent clauses begin with words that link them to in-
dependent clauses. An interesting and important type of dependent clause be-
gins with arelative pronounand therefore is called arelative clause.Consider
these sentences:
- Fritz knew a womanwho had red hair.
- The womanwhom Fritz likedhad red hair.
TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR 69