Why have people started using reflexive pronouns so much?

[Flippetydip]

I seem to hear a lot recently of "what can I get for yourself?" or "could you send it to myself with a, b and c copied in".

You get something for yourself, I get something for you. I send something to myself, I send something to you.

Is this now considered acceptable English?

Chickoletta " One always puts oneself last."

literally, one does not

Sad to say, I hear this frequently from teachers, especially middle and senior management, WHO REALLY SHOULD KNOW BETTER!
Sorry, I shouted there, that's because it infuriates me!

Crazy, I once proofread a witness statement for a partner in a law firm who had misused a particular punctuation mark all the way through. (I think it was a semi-colon.) I corrected it and he made me change them all back again, saying, "I prefer it like that."

I'm a professional editor and I just had a would-be novelist trying to pull this one on me!! LOL

It's been driving myself mad since the 90s at least. Sadly not a new thing.

The other one I've noticed more recently is "at all", as in "Have you got a SHOPNAME card at all?" Tempted to say, "Well I've got a little bit of one, will that count?" You can't slightly have a store card, can you??

IveGotBillsTheyreMultiplying "Once people hear it used incorrectly by others, they start to use it themselves."
Exactly, it is like this new fad I see everywhere including on here where people say "I was sat at the table", instead of I was sitting at the table/seated at the table. Or "We were stood outside" instead of were were standing outside. Or "I was shook" instead of I was shaken. When did this become a thing? We were sat outside? Seriously, it doesn't even make any sense, it is broken English. Yet it now seems that everyone is speaking/writing like this. Why?

Just had an email which said "I'd like to discuss this with yourselves" (meaning just me) in an bid to be both pompous and overly deferential...

"I'm a professional editor and I just had a would-be novelist trying to pull this one on me!! LOL"

I would not want my name going anywhere near that book unless I could guarantee that my corrections made it into the final version.

And also I would tell your client that a poster on Mumsnet called LoveInTokyo some people will refuse to finish a book that is full of errors because they don't want to waste their time on something that is likely to be badly written.

salem ‘I was sat’ and ‘I was stood’ are, tbf, awful because people would use them incorrectly in any context because they think that’s the correct form. ‘I was shook’ is different in my opinion, because it’s slang and everyone knows it’s slang.

Everyone on my bank of desks at work engages in this ridiculous wanky attempt to sound ‘posh’ or ‘professional’ and it drives me (myself) bloody insane! I’ve even been given feedback suggesting that I start doing it too!

I DO think that MYSELF is the only person with a brain in that place sometimes.

Can I also add the word ‘itself’, for example - the document itself, the claim itself, the company themselves

Not everything has to be a self!

I’ve even been given feedback suggesting that I start doing it too!

Ouch, Glitter, so you had feedback along the lines, "Going forward, Glitter should leverage more impactful language when addressing key stakeholders, as demonstrated by myself and other team members."

"Cabin Pressure", John Finnemore as Arthur Shappey has exacerbated this in recent years, I myself believe. But I myself am convinced he was extracting the urine from themselves.

Ouch, Glitter, so you had feedback along the lines, "Going forward, Glitter should leverage more impactful language when addressing key stakeholders, as demonstrated by myself and other team members."

I actually winced reading that.

Don’t get me started on the incorrect use of past participles!

Crisis situation!

English grammar has fallen by the wayside and the media don’t help.

So many people no longer use English correctly and just copy others so the practise proliferates!

Yourself is just so patronising and if anyone starts using it I just switch off.

So many people no longer use English correctly and just copy others so the practise proliferates!

Oddbut - like using practise when they should use practice.

Slightly related..I was watching a programme last night and thought it sad people in their 30s were

It would be good if, like...

I'd like it if like, you know...

It's like, you know when you...

I don't understand why "like" or "like, you know" are so often inserted as a fillers nowadays. It makes the speaker sound so silly. It's irritating to listen to.

Back to your question OP, some people I know do it as they think it sounds posh.

After reading this thread I think it may be best to never speak and/or send a work email ever again

I think it’s fine to say ‘...David and I’ because you CAN say ‘‘tis I”. Which is the same substitution of me for I. And apparently (Wikipedia) me and I are cases of the personal pronoun I - not object subject pronouns like someone upthread said.
So I guess you could say ‘thank you for the invite to I’ - and Wikipedia says this is ‘hypercorrect’. So BAM! I out -pedant you pedants!

BOOM- Victoria wins.

When the pronoun is used as a subjective predicative complement, the nominative I is sometimes encountered in (very) formal style:[7]

"It is I."
But this is often seen as hypercorrect and may be unacceptable, as in:

• "This one [photograph] is I as a baby.[iv] Me is usually preferred as a subjective predicate, especially in informal style:[5]

Ouch, Glitter, so you had feedback along the lines, "Going forward, Glitter should leverage more impactful language when addressing key stakeholders, as demonstrated by myself and other team members."

head explodes
It actually wasn’t far off

It's not a new thing, I used to get into trouble for correcting it in sales letters when I was a sales administrator 20 years ago. I would get my revenge by changing 'please do not hesitate to contact myself' to 'please do hesitate to contact myself'.
I think people think it sounds more formal and polite, but it grates on me and makes myself me think of idiot sales people.

And apparently (Wikipedia) me and I are cases of the personal pronoun I - not object subject pronouns like someone upthread said.

Pingu - this is a bit confused: the cases (ie inflection when "I" changes to "me") indicate grammatical function ie whether a subject or object, so these things aren't contradictory, they are different sides of the same coin. And I don't think you could say "Thank you for the invitation to I", and saying "Thank you for the invitation to John and I" is an error which is sometimes attributed to hypercorrection.

I love you all!

The simple rule concerning me and I + another, is if you would normally say me then it's 'me + other' (could you send me and David an invitation?), and if you would normally say I, then it's 'other + I' (David and I want to go). Very very simple, but I was taught grammar in prep school in the 60s. Or maybe my peers and I were taught grammar in prep school in the 60s.

My workplace is absolutely full of reflexive pronoun misuse, with the most memorable being “If yourself could forward that to myself.”

@DadDadDad - well I was being a bit snarky about general pedantry! That’s a good point about cases - they are so peripheral to English grammar that I often don’t know what they do in English. I know you wouldnt actually say ‘thank you for the invitation to I’ because I am a speaker of the English language however my point was there is a precendent for using I in place of me in some constructions - such as ‘Tis I’ - so I don’t see why ‘....david and I’ is”wrong” it’s just a ‘rule’ in the same way as splitting infinitives is a ‘rule’. Aka it’s just a convention that has been trotted out in schools for some reason for long enough to seem proper.

I am however of the mind that using a reflexive instead of a pronoun is actually Wrong!