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At the end of every episode of Serial, Sarah Koenig says:

Serial is produced by Julie Snyder, Dana Chivvis and me.

The word "me" sounds wrong to me there. Is it? If it's wrong, what is correct there - myself, I, or me but in a different location? And if it's not wrong - why not?

Joe
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  • In a formal context, I'd expect to see myself where you have me, but I lack the grammatical chops to tell you why. I'm sure one of our resident linguists will be able to weigh in and throw around words like accusative case, etc. – Dan Bron Mar 03 '16 at 22:41
  • Myself is what I expected as well, but I'm aware that myself is one of those words that even reasonably competent grammarians like myself get wrong sometimes. I also have no idea how formal Serial would be considered; it's an NPR podcast that is affiliated with This American Life, so I would consider it ... somewhat formal? But it's also a podcast, despite being professionally produced. – Joe Mar 03 '16 at 22:43
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    Grammatically, it's fine. It's just that 'myself' is in a more formal register here ('me' sounding rather chummy). 'I' would be a hypercorrection. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 03 '16 at 22:45
  • "X, Y and I produced Serial." Shorter, active voice, no grammar questions. – ab2 Mar 03 '16 at 22:50
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    It's perfectly fine. "Serial is produced by me" is perfectly valid. And it's considered "polite" to put yourself at the end of a list of people in such cases, rather than first or in the middle. – Hot Licks Mar 03 '16 at 22:50
  • @ab2 Yeah, I imagine the fact that it's in passive voice is what's bothering me here. Since Serial is the subject, it's not "I" in this construction... but I'm confused by the Me/Myself split here. I didn't think the two were interchangeable. – Joe Mar 03 '16 at 22:51
  • They're not, in general. 'Myself' has two roles, as a reflexive and an emphatic pronoun. Some particular usages of me/myself may use either, sometimes with different emphasis. See When to use me or myself. Sometimes, using myself rather than me softens a statement. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 03 '16 at 23:27
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    Just to confuse matters a little: if there were only one producer, she could say (in an informal context) "I produced Serial all by myself.**" – Scott - Слава Україні Mar 03 '16 at 23:32
  • And 'Jane had rope coiled around her/self' shows the optional usage of the reflexive pronoun. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 03 '16 at 23:40

1 Answers1

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I'm quite certain that "me" is correct here, and in fact I have absolutely no problem reading or hearing it. Personally, I'm not sure why the confusion.

To use "myself" in this case would come across to me as someone trying to sound more formal or more "proper" and making a misstep in doing so.

Really, "myself" should only be used reflexively when the same person is both the subject and the object: "I washed myself" rather than "I washed me" but "I washed her" rather than "I washed herself".

In the case of your example, it is just a straightforward objective pronoun, and so "me" is correct. The inclusion of other people pushes "me" to the end of the list out of politeness, but has no other bearing at all.

(Note, "myself" can also be used as an intensifier, but it doesn't seem necessary to expand on that here.)

Karl
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