Reflexive or Emphatic Pronoun

[Enlightened mind]

Does the sentence "I baked the cake myself." comprise Reflexive or Emphatic Pronoun?

 

[MikeNewYork]

They are synonyms, so it depends on whom you read. I call it a reflexive pronoun.

 

[Matthew Wai]

In my humble opinion, the OP is asking whether 'myself' is a reflexive pronoun or an emphatic pronoun there.
If so, I would consider it to be the latter, but I am not a teacher.

 

[gurpreetgill4u]

I am not a teacher.

When reflective pronoun is used to place emphasis on the noun it is called emphatic pronoun.
In your case I is the subject and he's emphasizing that he did it himself.For me it is an emphatic pronoun.
I am not a teacher.

Best way to check is to remove emphatic pronoun and the meaning still remain the same.On the other hand we can not remove reflective pronoun.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I consider it a reflexive pronoun but not an emphatic pronoun below, but I am not a teacher.
'I burnt myself while baking the cake.'

 

[MikeNewYork]

I still consider them synonyms.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I don't think the plural pronoun 'them' can refer to 'a word', but I am not a teacher.

 

[Matthew Wai]

He considers 'reflexive pronoun' and 'emphatic pronoun' (them) to be synonyms.

I can't see anything wrong, perhaps because I am not a teacher.

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, E.M.:

I have found some information that may interest you and help you in your decision on how to classify "myself" in your sentence.

Two scholars have expressed their opinion.

I am terrified of violating copyright laws, so I have changed some of their words.

1. The owner himself painted the garage.
2. The owner painted the garage himself.
3. The victims themselves captured the bad man.
4. Wow! I saw the queen herself.

According to those two scholars:

a. Only 1, 3, and 4 represent genuine emphatic uses of those pronouns.

b. Number 2 (which means that "the owner performed the action of [painting the garage] to the exclusion of anyone else") shows the "adverbial function" of the reflexive pronouns.

(i) It is perhaps closely related to: "The owner painted the garage by himself."

*****

The following is only my thoughts:

(1) You know, of course, that "myself" is called a reflexive pronoun.
(2) In "I cut myself," it is clearly reflexive. (One cannot say, "I cut me.")
(3) In "I myself did it," it is clearly emphatic.
(4) In "I did it myself," those two scholars feel that it does NOT qualify as a genuine "emphatic," for it does not directly follow the noun.
(5) But those two scholars do NOT claim that "myself" in a sentence such as #4 qualifies as a reflexive (as in #2).
(6) Therefore, I join the other posters who feel that "myself" in "I baked the cake myself" is an emphatic use of the reflexive pronoun, remembering, however, that it may be an ellipsis of "I baked the cake by myself."

Credit goes to Mesdames Marianne Celce-Murcia and Diane Larsen-Freeman, The Grammar Book / An ESL/EFL Teacher's Course (1983). I hear that there is a new edition with the latest research in grammatical analysis.

 

[Enlightened mind]

Thanks everybody for your insightful replies.
I became confused regarding the usage of prounoun in the aforementioned sentence because the grammar book I have mentioned that the prounoun myself has been used reflexively in the sentence. But, I felt it emphasizes the fact that the subject baked the cake by himself without taking help of anyone else.

That's why I posted here to obviate my confusion.

 

[Raymott]

I personally can't see how this is reflexive. You didn't bake yourself. You baked the cake, and you did it yourself.
https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-reflexive.htm

Maybe I could be convinced by an argument.