"I did it myself" - A question on compound personal pronouns

I did it myself.

Is this sentence grammatically correct? If yes, is the word "myself" a reflexive pronoun or an emphatic pronoun?

I think it is emphatic because

1. If you get rid of it (I did it), the sentence has the same meaning. The addition of "myself" thus serves to emphasize

2. Isn't a reflexive pronoun when someone does something to themselves? Like she rescued herself. You aren't doing anything to yourself (as far as we know what "it" is) so it does not seem like a reflexive pronoun

And I think it is grammatically correct since I am sure "I did it" is correct since it has the necessary Subject-Verb thing going on so the addition of that pronoun shouldn't hurt it. It sounds like something at the end of a dash? Maybe it would be clearer if you wrote "I, myself, did it."

=)

Cool! Thanks Maria!

So if we change the sentence to "I did it to myself" will that become a reflexive pronoun?


I'm not writing anything. It's just an argument I had with a friend of mine. Seems like I won :D

Yes, I think so because

1. If you are trying to get that point across by using a pronoun that refers to you, you have the choice of "I, me, and myself." "I did it to I" and "I did it to me" don't seem right, so at least by process of elimination, it is the only word we can put there

2. "Myself" is always used for one of two purposes and since it is obviously not being used to emphasize you, by process of elimination, it must be the other

But the emphatic pronoun "myself" is still a reflexive pronoun, nonetheless. It just happens to be used to emphasize rather than show that the subject's action is being done to the subject. (In the first sentence) So if your goal was to write a reflexive pronoun, you already did it


Haha congrats

Okay, this point is pretty clear now.

Thanks again :)

Here is a good one, in case you did not already stumble accross this
ryerson.ca/studentservices/els/pdf/Proper%20Pronoun%20Usage.pdf

"Empathetic pronoun" ... grammarians are silly.

Haha...pathetic grammarians.
Thanks for the link :)