Political Grammar and Myself

Apparently our political candidates are not being careful with their personal pronouns. This should not be too surprising, as they have other things to occupy the forefront of their minds, but the Wall Street Journal has a nice article on grammar in politics and the changing trends in American English. The best quote comes from Bryan Garner, former editor of Oxford’s Dictionary of Modern American Usage : “People who are shaky in their grammar think of ‘myself’ as a safe usage, but to a real snoot, it’s bothersome.”

When it comes to matters linguistic, myself is definitely a real snoot. But myself am also a linguistics major who remembers a bit of English syntax. I like my sentences to obey the rules of English grammar, under which reflexive pronouns (like myself ) require proper antecedents and cannot be the subject of sentences. While I won’t be voting on grammar this November, I do hope that the candidates can clean up their English, if not for the sake of the English language then for that of the voters ourselves.