by Alan Townendreflection of himself in the water but in the first sentence the
meaning is that Narcissus and nobody else saw it in the water. When
it has that meaning we call the pronoun an emphatic pronoun but the
form in singular and plural and all the «persons» is exactly the same
as with the reflexive pronoun. The important thing about the
emphatic pronoun is that it is not used always with transitive verbs
and obviously is not used with sentences where the subject and
object are the same. Now let's put all that into a very short and
simple narrative and try and find which are emphatic and which are
reflexive pronouns: Imagine a young man at a party who is very full
of himself and who is talking to another person whose back is itself
facing a mirror:
Personally I myself have always prided myself on being able to look
after myself in whatever situation I happen to find myself. My father
himself always taught me to take decisions. «You should make your
own mind up yourself and let other people get on with things by
themselves.» Those are the very words themselves that he used. I
don't know what you yourself do. I mean we are all supposed to try
and make the best of ourselves. I guess or I imagine from what you
yourself look like that you have a reasonable job. I don't imagine
that you earn as much as I myself do. I assume that you and your
family are yourselves struggling to pay the rent or the mortgage?
What exactly do you yourself do for a living?' For a moment the
pompous young man turned round on himself. When he turned back
he found himself staring at himself in the mirror. The other 'self' had
slipped away and was now enjoying herself in another part of the
room talking to a young man who was looking very pleased with
himself.