You can contact John, Jane or me (myself) for more information

Question

Possible Duplicate:
When is it correct to use “yourself” and “myself” (versus “you” and “me”)?

In a conversation, how is is correct to say:

You can contact John, Jane or me for more information ...

or

You can contact John, Jane or myself for more information ...

For your example sentences only, I would say that either is correct. — , May 09 '12 at 19:55

score 16 · Accepted Answer · answered May 09 '12 at 15:44

16

Me.

Myself is reflexive: it denotes that the person (me) is doing something to that person (myself) and no other.

It's not correct to use a reflexive pronoun unless the recipient of the action is the person doing that action. You can't mix you with myself.

You can talk to me.
I can talk to myself.

answered May 09 '12 at 15:44

Andrew Leach

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A Benjamin Disraeli quote (via Barry England): "Lord Salisbury and myself have brought you back peace—but a peace I hope with honour." – z7sg Ѫ May 09 '12 at 16:18
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So "I will fix the car myself" is wrong? – David Schwartz May 09 '12 at 19:35
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@z7sg: That's not modern English. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica May 09 '12 at 19:48
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@DavidSchwartz: That's different: you're using it in apposition. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica May 09 '12 at 19:48
@Cerberus It's certainly modern politicians' English: "David Cameron, myself and other prominent members of the government..." – z7sg Ѫ May 09 '12 at 19:55
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@z7sg: But is it considered acceptable by modern style guides? The question is not whether anyone ever says this (the answer would be clearly yes). Politicians are not known for the readability and elegance of their language... – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica May 09 '12 at 20:13
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@Cerberus This is a question about spoken English. I could find many such examples by all sorts of people. It's a common and acceptable usage that happens to fall foul of a prescriptive grammar rule. Clearly, it is the rule that is wrong. English grammar is not in fact governed by a set of fixed rules. – z7sg Ѫ May 09 '12 at 21:14
@z7sg: The answer could include a note about how this construction is found in speech by native speakers, but I think some advice as to desirability is helpful to most readers. People are interested in prescriptive rules, and I see no problem with that. You can't change the way culture works. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica May 09 '12 at 22:09
"You can contact John, Jane or myself" - there is nothing wrong with saying that. Nothing at all. It is desirable in the correct context. Choice between the two is a matter of style and register. The simple rule does not address that. – z7sg Ѫ May 09 '12 at 23:08
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Yes there is something wrong in saying "John, Jane or myself" when this compound is a direct object. Though not unheard of among English speakers, it is an instance of what is considered (unfairly though that may be) to be a "lower" dialect. Someone studying English as a second (or n-th) language, which the OP may well be, deserves to know, as part of a complete answer, whether something is prescriptively considered to be lousy English or not. – Kaz May 09 '12 at 23:48
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@Kaz It's not rare, it's common. If anything it is a higher-status feature. Shakespeare himself used it frequently. – z7sg Ѫ May 10 '12 at 00:09
@Kaz: What z7sg said. Despite the fact that there's a simplistic "rule" according to which it's theoretically incorrect to use "myself" in this way, I think it does in fact correlate more strongly with "high-status" speakers than with uneducated dialectal usage. Where the great unwashed say "me", and the pedants say "I", the careful speaker often says "myself". And over time it makes more sense to say careful speakers make the rules, rather than abide by them. – FumbleFingers May 10 '12 at 00:53

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered May 09 '12 at 15:46

9

Use "me." Myself is unnecessary here. As a simple test, remove John and Jane from the sentence and re-read it. Which sounds better?

You can contact me for more information.
You can contact myself for more information.

answered May 09 '12 at 15:46

JD.

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+1 for the simple test. Works well for me vs. I, too. – dj18 May 09 '12 at 18:48
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How does this answer the question? The question didn't ask if "myself" was necessary, nor did it ask which sounded better. – David Schwartz May 09 '12 at 19:36

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered May 09 '12 at 15:43

4

Myself is only used when you are both the object and the subject, for example:

I hurt myself.

Since this is not one of those cases (you is the subject here, not I), use me.

answered May 09 '12 at 15:43

3

So "I will do it myself" is incorrect? – David Schwartz May 09 '12 at 19:36

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited May 09 '12 at 19:48

2

People sometimes replace [me] with myself, as if to avoid putting the spotlight directly on themselves:

'The chairman appointed myself to that position.'

There is no need to do this. In fact we draw less attention to ourselves by using the ordinary me:

'The chairman appointed me to that position.'

(from 'The Cambridge Guide to English Usage')

edited May 09 '12 at 19:48

RegDwigнt

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answered May 09 '12 at 16:21

Barrie England

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Have you read Arnold Zwicky’s blog posting regarding “untriggered reflexives” about all this? It’s rather interesting. – tchrist May 09 '12 at 17:00
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There's no need to do this, but perhaps the person specifically wanted to draw more attention to themselves. – David Schwartz May 09 '12 at 19:38

David Schwartz · Answer 5 · 2012-05-09T23:53:38.757

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The use of "myself" and similar reflexives for emphasis is normal English usage of the word. This particular speaker wanted to place emphasis on the fact that they personally were one of the people you could contact for information.

Some dictionaries even list this definition first:

(used as an intensive of me or I): I myself will challenge the winner. - dictionary.reference.com

It is commonly claimed that reflexive pronouns are only permitted when the subject and object are the same. While this is certainly a common usage of reflexive pronouns, this rule would reject such common constructions as, "I had to fix it myself."

However, the original example (a naked myself used as an emphatic me) is considered by many (and I personally agree) to be poor style. And many people may (wrongly, IMO) consider it incorrect. So I'd generally suggest avoiding it unless you really do need the emphasis for some reason. And even then, you can get emphasis by using "me personally" or "me myself", which is much less unpleasant.

edited May 09 '12 at 23:53

answered May 09 '12 at 19:43

David Schwartz

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This is quite different. Using myself in apposition to I/me is accepted by all: using it as the head of a noun phrase while the subject is not I/me is not. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica May 09 '12 at 19:54
Here, you are using myself as an intensifier, not as a reflexive pronoun. An intensifier is always OK, as in "You can contact John, Jane or me myself ..." -- but you always need me as the object if the action is not reflexive. – Andrew Leach May 09 '12 at 19:59
@AndrewLeach: The original example proves that you don't. – David Schwartz May 09 '12 at 20:00
Examples in questions don't prove anything, nor do politicians who use it wrongly. It is quite common, though. – Andrew Leach May 09 '12 at 20:05
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@AndrewLeach: "Everyone is doing it wrong" is incoherent. "Right" is how people do it. – David Schwartz May 09 '12 at 20:07
@DavidSchwartz: Many people disagree with that statement, probably including the asker. He is not asking whether anyone would ever use it that way; he is rather asking for stylistic advice, as most questions here. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica May 09 '12 at 20:15
@Cerberus: As I read the question, he's not looking for stylistic advice. He's looking for an explanation of the use. (I agree that it's stylistically unpleasant.) – David Schwartz May 09 '12 at 20:24
@DavidSchwartz: I don't know, his introduction is rather short...I don't see anything about an explanation. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica May 09 '12 at 20:28
@Cerberus: He asks, "how is is correct to say", which I suspect was supposed to be "how is it correct". – David Schwartz May 09 '12 at 20:32
@DavidSchwartz: He just means "which is correct": he is not a native speaker. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica May 09 '12 at 20:34
@Cerberus He has not received stylistic advice, he has received a prescriptive rule saying that one alternative is incorrect. – z7sg Ѫ May 09 '12 at 23:09
@z7sg: To me that boils down to the same thing, but apparently we disagree about certain complicated premises, so let's dunk it out in chat. Actually you already sort of moved the discussion over there, so what I am talking here. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica May 09 '12 at 23:50

You can contact John, Jane or me (myself) for more information

5 Answers5