In this use they are called reflexive pronouns.
- I have hurt myself.
- King Alfred interested himself in his subjects.
- These schemers deceived themselves.
- Mary was talking to herself.
- He gave himself a holiday. [Indirect object.]
These pronouns are called reflexive (that is, “bending back”) because they refer back to the subject and repeat its meaning in an object construction.
Note. A reflexive pronoun sometimes refers to a substantive in the objective case: as,—“Our captors left us to ourselves.”
In older English the simple personal pronouns me, thee, etc., were often used reflexively: as,—“I held me [= myself] still”; “Yield thee [= thyself] captive”; “They built them [= for themselves] houses” (see [§ 106]). This idiom survives in colloquial language (as, “I have hurt me,” “I have bought me a rifle”), but it is avoided in writing except in a few expressions such as: “I must look about me”; “We gazed about us”; “Look behind you.”
127. The adjective own is sometimes inserted between the first and the second part of the self-pronouns for emphasis.
Examples:
- my own self,
- your own self,
- his own self,
- our own selves,
- their own selves.
In this use, self is in strictness a noun limited by the possessive and by the adjective own, but the phrases may be regarded as compound pronouns. Other adjectives are sometimes inserted between the possessive and self: as,—my very self, his worthless self.
128. The intensive pronouns are sometimes used without a substantive. Thus,—