What is the meaning of "you seem pretty cool yourself"? I don't understand the "yourself" in this context. Is this ironic and means that I find myself being cool?
Regards Klaus
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Have you tried looking up the definitions of yourself in a dictionary? If so, what did that tell you about the possible uses of the word?– Janus Bahs JacquetCommented Nov 12, 2014 at 12:03
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I undestand yourself but I didn't get the sense of the hole phrase. Is it intend to be ironic, sarcastic or a compliment?– KlausCommented Nov 12, 2014 at 12:12
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2It’s a compliment. Yourself is just emphatic here, just like in “do it yourself” or “I made it myself”.– Janus Bahs JacquetCommented Nov 12, 2014 at 12:22
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1 Answer
"Yourself" here is not the reflexive kind you might be thinking of. That is, it's not being used in the way it operates in a phrase like "you burned yourself."
In this case it is being used for emphasis. From Wiktionary:
You; used emphatically, especially to indicate exclusiveness of the referent's participation in the predicate, i.e., that no one else is involved. Ex: You yourself know that what you wrote was wrong.
But here, the kind of exclusive emphasis I suspect is even a little more particular. Even without context, my guess is that the person being referred to in "you seem pretty cool yourself" has earlier made reference to either the speaker or someone else being cool. "You seem pretty cool yourself" operates in response to this, emphasizing that the person being referred to also strikes the speaker as a cool.
