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I read some other questions about "me" vs. "myself". If I understood the answers right, "me" is correct or preferable in most cases. So my question is, is it okay to use "myself" in the following? My hunch is the administrator I'm writing to would like it better than "me".

After reviewing the documentation I submitted today, if you have any specific concerns about my son's medical needs, please do not hesitate to communicate them to his doctor or myself.

tchrist
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aparente001
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    It's poor style and traditionally considered incorrect, but it is common. – Anonym Oct 19 '16 at 02:19
  • I cannot find the duplicate that I’m pretty sure exists, but this has been going on for 400 years, so it is as clearly grammatical in the minds of native speakers as it is disparaged by prescriptivists telling people what to do. CGEL says: “Overrides with 3rd person reflexives characteristically occur in contexts where the antecedent refers to the person whose perspective is being taken in the discourse.” For now, see this for more. – tchrist Oct 19 '16 at 02:36
  • @tchrist - That is one heck of a long post. Bottom line -- can I make the administrator happy and use "myself"? If this email ends up being read by a judge with really good English two years from now, would I need to feel embarrassed by having written "myself" in that sentence? – aparente001 Oct 19 '16 at 02:45
  • Possible duplicate: http://english.stackexchange.com/q/69999 – tchrist Oct 19 '16 at 02:46
  • I don't think you would need to be embarrassed, but some people do (mistakenly, to be sure) think it is wrong. As so often occurs with these, they are just following uninformed prescriptions handed down by folks who don't know any better. – tchrist Oct 19 '16 at 02:47
  • One could always go whole hog on the reflexive and replace it with my good self, or my humble self. These usages would definitely be grammatically correct. But I wouldn't recommend them if you wanted to be taken seriously. – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten Oct 19 '16 at 07:19
  • @tchrist - Thank you. Just copy and paste it into an answer so I can go ahead and accept. I was looking for an intersection of good English and language the person I'm writing to would feel comfortable with and your comments gave me the reassurance I needed to go ahead and hit send on my email. – aparente001 Oct 20 '16 at 02:28

2 Answers2

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I don't think you would need to be embarrassed, but some people do (mistakenly, to be sure) think it is wrong. As so often occurs with these, they are just following uninformed prescriptions handed down by folks who don't know any better.

This has been going on for 400 years, so it is as clearly grammatical in the minds of native speakers as it is disparaged by prescriptivists telling people what to do. CGEL says: “Overrides with 3rd person reflexives characteristically occur in contexts where the antecedent refers to the person whose perspective is being taken in the discourse.”

See this for more.

tchrist
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While it's possible that the administrator would prefer "myself", the correct usage would be "me". If you would like to make it more clear, you could say

... please do not hesitate to communicate them to his doctor or to me.

The addition of the preposition makes it clear that I am a second indirect object in this case.

Toubabou
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  • Please provide references for the assertion of correctness. – tchrist Oct 19 '16 at 02:30
  • I don't know that that would clear it up- I talk to myself all the time. In other words, people who would like to use myself will also feel it's natural to say, "or to myself." – Jim Oct 19 '16 at 02:47
  • Hi Toubabou, welcome to EL&U. This site is a bit different from other Q&A sites: preference is given to a detailed answer supported by evidence and/or links to sources. This distinguishes it from mere opinion, and helps in building a library of detailed answers for future users. For help writing a good answer, see [Answer]. For more information about how EL&U works, please take the [Tour]. You can add more detail to your answer (e.g. reference from a grammar guide) by clicking on the [edit] link. :-) – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten Oct 19 '16 at 07:10
  • "I talk to myself", but another person talks to ME, not to myself. – Kate Bunting Oct 19 '16 at 10:43