Reflexive pronouns used for emphasis

In the sentence you quoted, 'myself' is definitely needed. If you doubt this, consider the effect of omitting it: "I cut shaving this morning." The result is meaningless, although you could avoid a reflexive by saying "I cut my face/nose/lip/cheek/neck etc shaving this morning".

Often reflexive pronouns used for emphasis can be omitted without affecting the meaning:

I do not eat pork myself.
The mayor himself will be here today.
He would not work on a Sunday himself.
You yourself have seen what happens when dogs fight.

In most cases the reflexive pronoun can come either after the personal pronoun or after a verb/verb phrase: I myself do not eat pork or I do not eat pork myself.

I thought it sounded like cut was being used to skip/not do something. Like when Americans talk about cutting class.

You are quite right. Posh boys in old school yarns (Billy Bunter etc) used to talk about 'cutting games' which sounds like self-harming for fun, but actually meant skipping compulsory sport ('games') lessons.

Well Cen, with many thanks on behalf of 1970, and granted that if Paok's esl, then I can 'stand; but eg, in
, the implication is ref to an earlier msg where the eatin' of bacon had been 'cussed, and

..implies others had been here earlier

Again tho, Trox, I'm splitting hairs yes

Or a an earlier remark in a conversation (a face-to-face one - remember them?)


Not necessarily, or even at all. In any case the 'himself' can be removed without rendering the sentence meaningless.


You are seeing hairs on a bald head.

Golly Cen but ain't you splittin' hairs over the splittin' of hairs