I heard this in a high-school commencement speech by President Bush over the weekend.
Problem:
The President used the wrong pronoun here.
Explanation:
This was part of a sentence that went along the lines of “I want you to spend your lives devoted to a cause larger than yourselves.”
The pronoun “yourselves” is a plural, second-person pronoun.
It should be used in one of two ways:
- reflexively: “You can do it yourselves.”
- for emphasis: “a group petition that you yourselves submitted”
Its use in the President’s speech followed neither of these patterns.
Instead, “a cause larger than yourselves” follows the pattern of “an X larger than Y” — for which “Y” is neither reflexive nor inserted for emphasis.
Solution:
“… a cause larger than you.”