Sunday, August 10, 2003
Where are the grammar police when you need them? I'm talking about the endless incorrect use of the reflexive. I don't want to be one of those people with bizarre grammar fetishes but now it's too late and this one is bugging me. For example: memos from clients that say: Bob and myself attended a meeting last week. Or on Big Brother where every week in the diary room every houseguest says something like: Robert, Justin and myself did blah blah blah. Here is a very nice grammar guide to help you out. It says, "whenever there is a reflexive pronoun in a sentence there must be a person to whom that pronoun can 'reflect.'" So you could say "Robert, Justin and I won the HOH." Or you could say, "The POV was given to Robert, Justin and me." Or you could say "I hurt myself during the competition." The houseguests have nothing else to do in there -- a grammar lesson could be quite informative.