I, personally, thought to myself
Just how bad's your self image?
"I... personally"
What's that all about? Are you ever impersonal? Do you need to reinforce the fact that you are you? Don't you have the guts to say just "I"?
While we're about it, "Myself and Fred thought you might like to..."
Who the heck is "myself"? It's a reflexive pronoun. The French use them a lot. "Je me lave" - "I wash myself." They understand them.
It's "Fred and I", not "I and Fred", and not "Myself and Fred" nor "Fred and myself"
There's a petite lady, Elizabeth Windsor, no relation to Barbara, who gets it right: "My husband and I..." we hear it a lot. So why can't you get that right?
Or is that down to self image, too? Are you unsure who you are? That's "who", not "whom". To Be is an intransitive verb.
And whom do you think to? Yes, you think inside your head. You think to no-one. You just think.
Why is it that so many people open their mouths and find there was a little bit more in there than they expect? A conversation doesn't have to have every second filled with sound!
Where did this come from? Watching TV news and hearing the public, you and me, speak. How dumbed down can we possibly get?
Or are we just not bovvered?
3 comments:
I might say that sometimes when I am seeking to deflect some criticism -- like, let's see, 'well, personally I don't like it but probably others do' -- just as a way of softening the message.
But, as ever, you are right in what you say.
"well, personally I don't..."
There have been countless times that the phrase quoted has been in my lexicon and repertoire of stock responses. Gee, somehow managed to avoid using the personal pronoun altogether in this comment. *beams smugly at Tim*
Brody
Now that just means that both of you shilly shally when you hope that you are being nice to the other guy. You need to remember that the other guy finds it annoying,
I see why you each use it. It's a stratagem to make the message appear less direct. But if it is going to offend by being direct then don't say it,
Always remember that periphrasis is simply another way of saying circumlocution.
'Myself' and 'personally' have a use, but that use is not to reinforce the personal pronoun, nor to replace it.
"I shot myself in the foot." That is 100% valid.
"I took your words personally." Yes, instead of generally.
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