In LDOCE6:
themselves pronoun.
One of the definitions:
used after words like ‘everyone’, ‘anyone’, ‘no one’ etc when you talk about someone already mentioned and you do not know what sex they are or it is not important. Many teachers think this is not correct English:
Someone told me they’d actually seen the accident happen themselves.
---------
If the usage above is not correct, how can I use it correctly?
Maybe like this?
Someone told me they’d actually seen the accident happen himself/herself.
Thanks!
Someone told me they’d actually seen the accident happen themselves.
Believe it or not, it is okay, though there may be some ambiguity about who "they" refers to -- I'll assume the referent of "someone" and "they" (and thus "themselves") is the same. "Themselves" is being used here as a gender-neutral reflexive pronoun instead of "himself" or "herself". The alternative "himself/herself" is possible, but often frowned on as being clumsy.
The problem with "themselves" is that it sounds odd when the antecedent is just one person. "Everyone enjoyed themselves" is fine because we're talking about a number of people, but in your example the pronoun with the visibly plural "selves" sounds odd given that there's just one person involved -- though it is grammatically okay.
And of course, you also have the gender-neutral "they" in your example, which again can sound odd for the same reason.
The obvious solution is to have the singular form "themself", but it is quite rare and non-standard.
Incidentally, reflexives can be complements, or optional modifiers used for emphasis as is the case in your example.
I'm a non-native and for me the sentence above have two subjects: the first one in the matrix clause - "Someone" (singular), the second in the subordinate clause - "they". Hence singularity of the pronoun someone stands in opposition to plurality of they. Very confusing, indeed.
Thank you!
PS I’m a little confused about 'given' in
...in your example the pronoun with the visibly plural "selves" sounds odd given that there's just one person involved...
Dose it mean this?
...in your example the pronoun with the visibly plural "selves" sounds odd (when it is) given that there's just one person involved...
Pardon me for my poor English.
It means "in view of the fact" or "taking into account".
It's not an issue. Anaphoric expressions can have antecedents in previous clauses, sentences and even paragraphs.
I'm a big fan of 'themself', and use it all the time.
Click here to see that it's coming back into fashion after it peaked 200 years ago.
I found this usage in LDOCE6 entry for the word ‘they':
If you want to talk in general about someone, and you do not want to say if the person is male or female, you often use they, them, or their:
· If anyone doesn’t like it, they can leave.
· When a friend upsets you, do you tell them?
· Someone has left their coat behind.
• People do this in order to avoid suggesting that the person can only be male, or to avoid using longer expressions such as 'he or she', 'him or her'.
• This use is acceptable and very common in spoken English, and is becoming more acceptable in writing as well.
• However, some people consider this use to be incorrect. You can sometimes avoid the problem by making the subject plural:
· If people don’t like it, they can leave.
· When friends upset you, do you tell them?
• In the past, people used to use 'he' to refer to men or women, but most people now avoid doing this.
We know all that. But you asked about the reflexive pronoun "themselves", not "they".