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?

Thank you, nauticant, I shall enjoy listening to that whilst I do boring stuff round the house!

I did just that earlier. Thanks nauticant. As a languages teacher it made me cringe, but was funny! I ❤ John Finnemore sooo much.

I absolutely hate people saying I instead of me. grrr. When it comes after a verb and a preposition it is ME. You would never say an invitation was sent to "I". So if it is David and....it's the same rule. Some people for some reason think using the word me sounds vulgar. uneducated idiots.

I first noticed this when I was managing a customer service team in a call centre. Yorkshire, early 2000s.

"We would ask yourself to arrange the repair directly and send the bill to ourselves for payment"
"Please send the documents for the attention of myself"
"That would be a decision for yourself to make"

I had one woman on my team who used these repeatedly. I asked her why she phrased it like this instead of saying "you" and "me". She said she thought those sounded rude and pushy

It's definitely not a dialect thing in Yorkshire, it's misuse.

I do love dialect. Yorkshire traditionally uses "were" instead of "was", as in "He phoned me when I were on't way to Tesco and said can you get me a barmcake cos boss phoned and said I'm on 7 while 3 shift tomorrow."

While means both "until" and "while"
Learn means both "teach" and "learn"
Borrow means both "lend" and "borrow"

In Scotland I particularly enjoy hearing "That's me [x]" instead of "I am [x]" - e.g. "That's me outside" instead of "I'm here."

A poster earlier mentioned that Irish Gaelic has no word for "yes" - I'm wondering if there is a similar issue with Scots Gaelic that leads to this circumlocution, even many generations after the language ceased to be spoken in most households.

At the risk of de-railing the thread one of the quaintest and most delightful old country sayings I heard only recently was when a friend was presented with a very weak cup of tea.

After looking askance at the dish-watery beverage before her she looked up and said,

'Water bewitched and tea begrudged'.

Comes from somewhere up north, I think.

Oh gosh, I feel like this too! It drives me insane! I agree with the posters who say heavy users of 'myself', 'yourself' etc are policemen and estate agents. They definitely use it in an attempt to sound official or more intelligent and it definitely makes them appear stupid. I'm going to add local council workers to the frequent offender list! :)

I also HATE uptalk (the 'up' inflection at the end of sentences). Its almost always used by the same people who misuse myself etc. I've been so irritated by it that I've started to reply to an offender using uptalk in a greatly exaggerated manner. I know that's probably rude? But sometimes I can hardly hear the words they're saying? Because I'm so cross? It makes me furious? I can't concentrate on what they're saying? Its annoying? Beyond belief?

Another one is on a daily basis - why .... WHY can they not just say 'daily'? I find my boiled brain saying to myself the basis is daily, she feeds her dog on a daily, not weekly basis. She prefers this basis. She likes this basis. Basis. Basis. Basis. Ahhhhh.... please, you feed your bloody dog DAILY. That's ALL we need to know. We don't care about your basis!

As for haitch, it strikes me as SO ironic that the very people who drop aitches constantly are the same people who are determined to ADD one to a word that SHOULDN'T have it! They'll be merrily saying 'orse, 'ouse, 'arry, 'elp, (I'm not referring to the drop that comes with a determiner like 'an') yet when it comes to saying the letter H, it mysteriously becomes haitch. You can even play them the correct Oxford pronunciation, it'll never make any difference.

And to the poster that mentioned filling forms OUT, thank you! I've never thought of this before, may have even said this myself but I never will again and am actually very grateful for the enlightenment! :)

This makes me so angry! I think people think myself and yourself are formal versions of me and you. Bad grammar is contagious. God help us all.

I hate it. "I'll send that over to yourself" NO YOU WON'T

Thanks so much for your opinions on the Irish language as in being thick etc. Himself. Yourself. Herself. Myself. Are all phrases and words us irish have been raised to use. Take a step back and stop being judgemental twats and think is this person irish? Also some of you educated people must be so proud of your lack of manners. I am so pleased that this is what you need to judge and moan at. Also just to clarify this is a form a racism to berate people for language and just to add educated judgy mucks you should read an adults guide to dyslexia as it clearly states that undiagnosed adult dyslexic will use language such as this not because they are stupid or lazy but if is how they learnt to cope from a young age where the education system you and your 3rd world government decided to cut cots and elaminate help

As ghastly as 'myself' etc is, it's only at no. 2 in my list of horror grammar beaten comprehensively by could/would/should OF instead of HAVE. It's an abomination which seems to be spreading.

Can someone clarify the 'I' issue please? I just sent a work email saying 'xx and I will be working on that this week'. Is that right? In speech I would always say 'me and xx', is that wrong?

Dialect is great user1484424013 whether it's Irish*, Yorkshire, or wherever.

If it's not dialect and it's ignorance being presented as superior knowledge, well, hanging's too good for them.

(If there's a grammar howler in this post I'm willing to retreat from public life forever.)

*Irish English

me is an object i.e. things get done to me.

Jane passed the ball to me.
jane yelled at me.
jane hugged me.

I is a subject. I does things.

I passed the ball to jane.
I yelled at jane.
i hugged jane.

Things getting done in tandem doesn't change which form you use.

Jane passed the ball to Fred and me. (me is still an object)
Jane and I made dinner for Fred. (I is part of the subject, so it is I, not me).

If you take out the other person, how would you say the sentence? I think you would say 'I will be working on that this week' so 'xxx and I' is correct. You wouldn't say 'me will be working on that this week' would you? 'Me and xxx will be working ....' is also wrong.

user1484424013 Irish posters have already explained it's wide usage in Ireland, so no need to be rude or burst a blood vessel.

Also, someone at work who is already annoying in many ways, sends emails asking people to do things by saying 'please may you'. I find this incredibly annoying, but is it wrong?

Thanks marchin and silvery!

The answer for correct grammar fabulousfrumpyfeet depends on whether you're doing the verb or the verb is being done to you:
I bite the dog. (Not "Me bite the dog.")
The dog bites me. (Not "The dog bites I.")

"Me and John went to the shops" can be fine for informal spoken speech but isn't grammatically correct for a . You wouldn't say "Me went to the shops".

my last post was at fabulous.

"please may you"? Never heard that. "may", when used in a sentence where you might use "can" often implies permission.

In a little tearoom in the sticks somewhere someone said this to the little old dear behind the counter and was told No, you can't, I'll get it for you.

There is nothing at all wrong with "can I get." So besides being rude, the woman behind the counter was wrong. The dictionary definition of "get" is "come to have or hold (something); receive."

It does not have a built-in reflexive "myself."

So it might not be actually incorrect then, just weird! I also find the myself/yourself thing cringe worthy, and I value good use of the English language, but don't be too harsh on the offenders. My parents were uneducated with regional accents, so I have many habits and mistakes I make without even realising. I'm quite careful as I now work in academia, but I imagine I still make mistakes.

AntiGrinch your post on the verb to deserves to be framed.

Aargh, meant the verb “to be”...

what is wrong with "can I get [myself] a coffee?"

Thanks mommy!
:)

the one that bugs me in a similar vein to @SnorkFavour and her Daily Basis (sounds like a shit, boring and pompous rightwing rag) is "during the summer months".

WHY MONTHS?

In summer (and all other seasons), there are days, hours, minutes, weeks, yes months, and even seconds. When some twat is saying, "we usually leave the cover off during the summer months" I am thinking "And not the summer FORTNIGHTS?"

JUST SAY "IN SUMMER"

AAAAAAARGH

Surely it should be John, Jim, jack or whoever and I. Never me or myself and whoever. Possibly I’m out of date, however pretty sure that’s what I was taught at school albeit a long time ago