We all know that a transitive verb needs an
object or receiver of its action. Thus, when a sentence uses a transitive verb, it’s absolutely necessary for its subject to have a
direct object to act on: “The woman
spurned her suitor last week.” “Her suitor
found a better woman yesterday.” Without that direct object to take the action, nothing really happens and the sentence makes no sense: “The woman
spurned…last week.” “Her suitor
found…yesterday.”
But we must keep in mind that a direct object need not always be someone or something other than the subject itself. There are many situations in which the subject can perform actions to or for itself as the direct object. Even in the absence of an external object or receiver, the transitive verb therefore can still function normally.
In English, the grammar device for indicating such situations is called
the reflexive pronoun. Each of the personal pronouns has a reflexive form that ends with the suffix “self”:
“myself” for “I,” the singular
“yourself” for the singular “you” and the plural
“yourselves” for the plural “you,”
“himself” for “he,”
“herself” for “she,”
“ourselves” for “we,”
“themselves” for “they,”
“oneself” for “one,” and
“itself” for “it.” What the suffix “self” does is pass back the transitive verb’s action to the subject performing that action.
Let’s refresh our memory about the most common applications of reflexive pronouns:
1. When the subject and direct object are one and the same. A reflexive pronoun is called for when (a) the subject acts on itself, or (b) describes a state, condition, or fact about itself. Acting on oneself: “I
restrained myself to avoid getting into trouble.” “The long-distance runner
paced herself to conserve her energy.” Describing one’s own situation: “She
considered herself qualified for the post.” “Don’t blame us; we
were victimized ourselves.”
In imperative sentences, of course, the reflexive expresses an action that someone expects another or others to do to themselves: “You
behave yourself.” “You
bring yourselves here at once!” The pronoun “you,” however, is often dropped from such constructions for greater immediacy: “
Behave yourself.” “
Bring yourselves here at once!”
2. When the subject itself is the indirect object (usually the object of a preposition). The reflexive works to establish the idea that the subject is not the verb’s direct object but simply an indirect object or intermediate receiver of the action: “I
picked some books
for myself.” “The thieves
divided the loot
among themselves.”
3. When the subject needs to be emphasized to make the context clearer. The reflexive can emphasize a particular action as solely the doing of the subject (to the exclusion of everybody else): “I’ll
do it myself since nobody wants to help.” “They
ate all the food rations
themselves so we went hungry.”
We must remember, though, that another type of pronoun—
the intensive pronoun—has exactly the same grammatical form as those of the reflexive pronoun. The intensive pronouns function solely to emphasize their antecedent subject, not to act on it in any way: “
I myself found the hotel substandard.” “T
he general manager himself convinced the strikers to return to work.” In such constructions, the intensive pronouns draw stronger attention to the subject as doer or receiver of the action.
A final point about intransitive verbs before we close: although as a rule, intransitive verbs can’t take a direct object and act on it, a few of them are able to do that. This is when an intransitive verb reinforces meaning in a sentence by taking its noun equivalent as a
cognate object, or an object represented by a word very close to the verb in form: “Although born rich, he
lived the life of a bum.” “We
dreamed a dream that couldn’t come true.”
This essay, 2116th of the series, appeared in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the September 15, 2022 digital edition of The Manila Times
, ©2022 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.Read this essay online in
The Manila Times:
When the object is the doer itself (Next week:
Giving our English the power of certitude) September 22, 2022
Visit Jose Carillo’s English Forum, http://josecarilloforum.com. You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter and e-mail me at j8carillo@yahoo.com.
