grammar and spelling

I don't usually up and correct people's grammar, or comment on their spelling. That gets annoying. But I was indeed an English major in college and have always been one of those people who bristles when certain blatant grammatical errors are tossed around.

The biggest offender? Misuse of the word "myself."

"Myself" is a reflexive pronoun. This means that it is used to intensify or refer back to a previously used noun or pronoun. That is to say, reflexive pronouns do not stand on their own. They only refer to the appropriate previously used noun:

I myself ran the race. (intensifying that I was the one who did it.)
I fixed dinner for myself because I was hungry. (following a preposition, refers to the subject...however, it would be incorrect to say "I fixed dinner for himself/herself," because there is no direct reference. In that case, you'd say "I fixed dinner for him/her.")


You do not use "myself" as a substitute for the word "me." Or, for that matter, as a substitute for the word "I." Let's go back to elementary school. When I am the subject of the sentence, I use the word "I:"

I went to the store.
Sharon and I went to the store.
Following the rainstorm, I went outside and jumped in puddles.


When I am the object of the sentence, I use the word "me:"

Yesterday something amazing happened to me.
Sharon told me a funny joke about monkeys.
My father prepared dinner for my mom and me.

Yes...that last sentence is correct! It would be horribly incorrect to say "My father prepared dinner for my mom and myself," even though it might sound pretty or sophisticated. Myself does not replace a noun, it refers to one!


But all of this is really only a preface to what I really intended to say in this post. Two things in the past week that made me cringe.

1. Last Sunday's Old Testament reading, Genesis 9:8-17. This is where God is making his covenant with Noah using the rainbow. A few times, God speaks of "the covenant that I am making between me and you and all living creatures." A couple things bother me. First of all....even though I can't find a good reason why it is grammatically incorrect, I don't like the order of the objects: "me and you and all living creatures." When you use the word me in a list of people in the predicate of a sentence, don't you usually leave "me" to the end? Wouldn't it have been more correct to say "you, all living creatures, and me?" I think it would. Furthermore, notice that there are three objects in the list. Three "people:" God, Noah, and living creatures. Between is a poor choice. Among is used when comparing more than two things. Though in this case, you could probably argue that there is a theological notion in using between, because it points out that there are really only two agents in the world: God and not-God. But I would have liked it better if God had said "between all living creatures and me." That would have been the best phrase.

2. In my blog-browsing, I was reading this post and its comments. It's an interesting conversation topic. The comment strain feels a little bizarre to me, as if it is going to spiral downward very quickly. But that's not the point. I don't want to be mean...but read through the comments, and notice the use of the word "thrown" instead of "throne," as well as the misspelling of the word "gentlemen" to read "gentlemean," which does make an interesting commentary on the eventual nature of comments on controversial blog posts, but is nevertheless a misspelling.

Not quite sure why this all bothered me enough to make a lengthy post about it. But now you've seen my dark side...