Thyself - Origins and Usage

Origins and Usage

In Indo-European languages, the reflexive pronoun has its origins in Proto-Indo-European. In some languages, the distinction between the normal object and reflexive pronouns exists mainly in the third person: whether one says "I like me" or "I like myself", there is no question that the object is the same person as the subject; but, in "They like them(selves)", there can be uncertainty about the identity of the object unless a distinction exists between the reflexive and the nonreflexive. In some languages, this distinction includes genitive forms: see, for instance, the Danish examples below. In languages with a distinct reflexive pronoun form, it is often gender-neutral.

A reflexive pronoun is a special kind of pronoun that is usually used when the object of a sentence is the same as the subject. Each personal pronoun (such as "I", "you" and "she") has its own reflexive form:

• I — myself
• you (singular) — yourself
• he — himself
• she — herself
• it — itself
• we — ourselves
• you (plural) — yourselves
• they — themselves

Reflexive pronouns are primarily used in three situations: when the subject and object are the same (e.g., "He watched himself on TV."), as the object of a preposition when the subject and the object are the same (e.g., "That man is talking to himself."), and to emphasize the subject through an intensive pronoun (e.g., "They ate all the food themselves.")