myself yourself

I think sometimes the speaker feels (wrongly) that the obvious pronouns such as "me" and "you" are a bit too direct or perhaps even childish - it’s interesting that this rarely happens with the third-person ones such as "him" . It's a bit like saying "Your Highness" "Your Lordship", etc, which avoids the over-personal "you". Using them as emphatic pronouns (e.g. "I haven't seen him myself") is correct, but using these forms as stand-alone substitutes for regular pronouns ("Please hand the forms back to myself or my colleague") just sounds silly. If you can say "me" instead, then do so.

Yep. This was my teatime rant.

I think dialect use is different. I have seen it in school letters! as in "you can speak to myself or to Miss X"

I have a really good friend who is Irish. I love the way she refers to her other half as 'himself' Always brings a smie to my face. Apparently many Irish people use that expession when talking about another man.

I, myself, don't object to the empathic pronoun in its rightful place, but yes, overuse is annoying.

It does seem to be a case of the longer the sentence the more impressive it becomes.

Many moons ago, my English teacher objected to what she called "a phrase beloved of politicians" by which she meant, "at this moment in time".

I can still hear her saying, "What you mean, girls, is now."

Surely the Royal family talks about “oneself “.

Agree. You hear politicians, celebrities, the Royal Family, talking about ‘myself’. Sounds awful and just wrong.

I loved Hyacinth Bucket Teetime and her poor long suffering husband.

It makes me INSANE! At what point was it decided that we could just stick the word "myself in a sentence wherever we wanted to. It is infuriating.

Thank you for helping me know I am not the only one!

Yes I see. Oneself would be worse I suppose or as Hyacinth Bucket once said ' I myself do personally think'.

Geekesse

I find it irritating as well, usually people trying to sound impotent important.

MaizieD, I think it should probably be ‘I myself am with yourself’. But even that is too simple a construction. How about ‘Myself, I am in a supportive position with reference to yourself’?

Nope, I'm with you, too.

Or, should that be: 'I, myself, am with you, too'

You are not alone. I think it’s another instance of the dumb idea that longer words sound cleverer than shorter ones.