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English?

 
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Two quick questions.

1. Which one is grammatically correct:-

"Paul,Dave and I had a discussion today regarding this"

(or)

"Paul,Dave and myself had a discussion today regarding this"

2. When a girl says "I went out with my girlfriend today", does it imply that she is a lesbian (or) does it just mean that she went out with a female friend?

I am confused coz from a male perspective, "girlfriend" means someone you have a intimate relationship with.
 
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I am not an expert on English, but here is my damn opinion anyway.

1. Which one is grammatically correct:

The first one.

2. does it imply that she is a lesbian

no

does it just mean that she went out with a female friend?

yes
 
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Pronouns with the -self suffix are "properly" used to indirectly refer to the subject of the sentence, for example "I gave myself a present". They are often "improperly" used in place of another pronoun in an attempt to convey a more formal or polite meaning, for example "I believe that problem is one for yourself". Mind you, as my parenthesis probably conveys, I don't really hold that grammatical rules are that important, particularly when they are for such an idiosyncratic language as English.
[ February 07, 2007: Message edited by: Paul Sturrock ]
 
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Originally posted by Paul Sturrock:
... They are often "improperly" used in place of another pronoun in an attempt to convey a more formal or polite meaning...


Or ironically, in an attempt to be hypercorrect. This tends to happen when "me" is actually appropriate. They realize "I" isn't correct, but an aversion to using "me" causes them to opt for phrasing like, "Reply to Uma or myself."

(Meanwhile, my cat refers to himself as, "my own self.")
 
Mapraputa Is
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Isn't www.languagelog.com everybody's second home page yet?

I considered the possibility that, despite proscriptions, many speakers view myself as the upscale (fancier, more elegant) alternative to plain ol' me, in the same way that, thanks to instruction to replace like as a conjunction by as, they view such as as the upscale alternative to plain ol' like.


Someone like me, someone such as myself
 
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