§ 8. Reflexive Pronouns

Indicate identity between the person or non-person they denote and that denoted by the subject of the sentence. They are: myself, yourself, herself, himself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves, structurally derived either from the possessive pronouns (myself, yourself, ourselves, yourselves), or from personal pronouns (himself, herself, itself, themselves); the pronoun oneself is derived from the indefinite pronoun one.

Reflexive pronouns derived from possessive and personal pronouns have the categories of person, number, and gender in the 3d person singu­lar only. The generalising reflexive pronoun oneself has none of these.

(E.g. Oh, I can do it myself. He felt himself grow hot to the roots of his hair).

If these are several homogeneous subjects denoting different persons including the 1st, the 1st person plural reflexive is used: (e.g. You, mother, and I must now think about ourselves). If there is no 1st person, the 2nd person plural reflexive is used: (e.g. You and mother must now think of yourselves).

If the subject is the indefinite pronoun one, the corresponding reflexive is use (E.g. One must not deceive oneself. If the subject is expressed by any other indefinite pronoun himself or themselves is used: Has anybody hurt himself?)

The most common functions of the reflexive pronouns are those of an apposition and objects (direct, indirect, prepositional) (E.g. Cedric himself knew nothing whatever about it.) (apposition) I have all kinds of beautiful sentiments myself. (apposition) I learned to dress myself many years ago. (direct object)

“How well you talk,” said the Miller’s wife pouring herself a large glass of warm ale. (indirect object) She talks only about herself. (prepositional object))

Less common are the functions of the subject, predicative, attribute, and adverbial modifiers: (E.g. My wife and myself welcome you, sir.) (subject) In some minutes she became herself again. (predicative) She showed me a large picture of herself as a bride. (attribute) My brother was a Robbins like myself. (adverbial modifier of comparison) He lived in a tiny cottage all by himself. (adverbial modifier of manner))

§ 9. Reciprocal Pronouns

Indicate a mutual relationship between two or more than two persons, or occasionally non-persons (each other, one another) who are at the same time the doer and the object of the same action. Thus, they loved each other means that the doer A loved the object В and at the same time the doer В loved the object A.

The pronoun each other generally implies that only two persons are involved, one another usually being preferred when more than two persons are involved.

Both of them are composite words and have only one grammatical category - the category of case (each other’s, one another’s).

Reciprocal pronouns in their common case form function as objects (E.g. Now they hate each other. They often quarrelled with one another).

The possessive case forms are used as attributes: (E.g. They stood silent, in each other’s arms).