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There are a number of other gender neutral third person reflexive pronouns such as hirself, zirself, xyrself, and coself. If you're talking about a specific person and know which pronouns they favor, use them. Perhaps by 2029 there will be a more clear-cut answer.
Reflexive pronouns have two main uses: a complement use where they are obligatory, as in "Ed hurt himself", and an emphatic use where they are optional, as in "Ed designed the house himself". It's the latter use that is sometimes called 'intensifying'.
"Themselves" is interesting because, before it was used as a gender-neutral singular reflexive pronoun, it was the reflexive pronoun for plural nouns (or noun phrases like "Bob and Bob").
This is that reflexive pronouns, at least in British English, are becoming an option to replace accusative pronouns (like me, you) in speech, possibly when mild emphasis is required: I just wanted to check this e-mail with yourself before I send it; To me this sounds horrible, but I hear it all the time, especially among London businesspeople.
Let's say, for some reason, that it's preferable to avoid pronouns when referring to someone. With most forms of pronouns, it's easy to do so by substituting the appropriate name in. Consider: She likes the bread of her making. Pronouns can easily be avoided: Alice likes the bread of Alice's making. How can reflexive pronouns be avoided? e.g.
a) Reflexive pronoun in direct object function (clarifies verbs that has mandatory reflexives, explaining structures that has optional reflexive [mainly object near prepositional phrase], explaining inadmissible reflexive [mainly complement of preposition that required to be anaphorically linked to subject, close to mandatory usage, but this ...
This short entry, apart from giving interesting examples, points out that the presence of a reflexive pronoun is not necessary for a verb to qualify as reflexive. They kissed is a reflexive usage (reciprocal). It also points out behave as an intransitive verb that nevertheless admits a reflexive pronoun, as in your example.
1 After prepositions we sometimes use the personal pronouns and sometimes the reflexive pronouns. The personal pronouns are used when it is clear that the pronoun refers to the subject. 2 Sometimes we use the reflexive pronoun to make the meaning clear. There follow some minor points which are not so important.
Great questions! Let’s break down the use of reflexive pronouns and prepositions of direction in these examples: nystateofhealth. She dragged it toward her. Explanation: “Toward her” is correct because “her” is the object of the preposition “toward.” Reflexive pronouns are used when the subject and the object are the same person ...
Reflexive Pronoun Use (consider revising) My question: What is a reflexive pronoun? Also, is there a better way to word this, or is it fine as is? I know software won't have all the nuances of the English language correct, but as I don't know who will be viewing this document in the future, I'd like to have all my Pronouns in a row.