is the following correct English?
On behalf of Karen Jones … my wife, Cyndi … and me. WELCOME … and THANK YOU for coming.
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Could you specify which element of the sentence is giving you trouble? Proofreading questions without a specific concerned will be closed as off-topic. Also, could you clarify what you were trying to indicate with the elipses (the dot-dot-dots) and the use of all-caps?– vpnAug 7, 2017 at 23:03
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2...and myself. Neither I nor me. Though me is better than I.– MAAAug 8, 2017 at 0:22
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@MAA, there are woefully few resources on this construction to be found on Google. I agree that myself is right, but I cannot figure out why (other than it sounds right). In this case, is it because the second part of the sentence, although technically in the imperative, implies that the "myself" is speaking, hence warranting the reflexive? In contrast to something like: "On behalf of Karen, Cyndi, and me, the emcee welcomed everyone and thanked them for coming.– vpnAug 8, 2017 at 2:07
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@vpn it's because a reflexive pronoun is used to refer back to the subject of the verb when that entity then also occurs in an object later in the sentence (e.g. He smacked himself, the dog ran away from itself...) in the above example, the "I am speaking" is implied/deleted from "I am speaking on behalf of (insert names here) and myself," so the deleted instance is the subject occurrence and "myself" is the object of preposition.– MAAAug 8, 2017 at 2:13
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1@EdwinAshworth, I was just trying to flag, not vote to close; I don't have that privilege yet. But at any rate, I have alerted you, so feel free to do whatever you see fit with my suggestion.– vpnAug 8, 2017 at 16:10
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1 Answer
There is a deleted/implied "I am speaking" at the beginning of your example sentence. So the "complete" and correct version would be:
(I am speaking) on behalf of Karen Jones, my wife Cyndi, and myself. WELCOME! And THANK YOU for coming.
(Changed punctuation for clarity, but because the question isn't about punctuation, feel free to ignore that.)
When the subject entity of a sentence is referred back to later in a sentence, but this time in an object position, it must be referred to with a reflexive pronoun. E.g. "The man washed himself," or "The dog tripped over itself." Therefore, because the speaker is the subject of the sentence, when that entity occurs as the object of preposition later in the sentence, he/she must be referred to with a reflexive pronoun.
