Sheriff Lee Baca Gets Cited for a Pronoun Violation

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca recently commented on his relationship with Los Angeles County governmental officials:

"The government has been in complete communication with myself." He should have put it:

"The government has been in complete communication with me. Here, no need for clarifying with whom the government communicates.

In fairness to Sheriff Baca, we must say that "The reflexive (pronoun) is an idiomatic form devised for convenience...meant to avoid clumsiness and ambiguity." (Harper's English Grammar, John Opdycke).

The sheriff was clumsy, he could simply have used the object pronoun me. But more on myself, which comes in two reflexive pronoun varieties: intensive (also called emphatic), and clarifying. When used intensively, the "self" pronouns are usually placed next to the noun or other pronoun they refer to:

I myself will attend the opera. Or, separated from its antecedent (the word it intensifies or clarifies): I went to the opera myself. (No ambiguity in either case).

When used to clarify, the "self" pronouns are separated from their antecedent by the verb: She trained herself to sing. (Whom did she train? "Herself"). (No ambiguity).