Help with English: feel oneself + -ed, -ing

[flabbergasted]

Dear grammar-savvy forum members! Could you explain, as if to a language student, why it is impossible to say "I feel myself bad", but is OK to say "I feel myself neglected" and "I feel myself falling in love". They're not the same, but I cannot find the right terminology. I think the meaning of "feel " is a bit different here, and also there is the participle and ing-form, not the adjective, following the verb in case of the last two examples. I need this explanation because a teacher I know told her students that to use feel with oneself is wrong, and they came up with these examples.

[Deinonysus]

"To feel" does not become reflexive in English when you are feeling your own emotions or sensations the way it does in other languages such as French.

If you are holding a friend over a cliff (it happens), and he is starting to slip, you can feel him falling. It is not an emotion, it is a physical sensation. When you say "I feel myself falling in love", you aren't using "feel myself" as a true reflexive verb to describe that you feel love. You are using a metaphor that you are actually falling, and in this metaphor you can physically, not emotionally, feel someone falling. But you don't feel your friend falling, you feel yourself falling.

"I feel myself neglected" sounds unnatural to me and I would probably prefer "I feel neglected" or "I feel that I am being neglected". Again, in this case you are not truly using "feel" reflexively to describe an emotion or sensation, but you have a feeling, and subject of that feeling is that you are being neglected. You can also feel that your friend is being neglected. But you can't feel yourself that your friend is being neglected.

These are special cases, and you can't say "I feel myself sad" or "I feel myself cold".

[flabbergasted]

Thanks for the explanation. It seems that you can only use I feel myself with the ing form, and indeed, it is a physical sensation. I feel myself neglected would be wrong, although I have seen similar phrases in books.

[Doitsujin]

@flabbergasted: IMHO, you might get more helpful replies, if you indicated your native language(s).
As for feel (and other verbs) I strongly recommend that you get yourself a copy of Practical English Usage by Michael Swan.

[rdearman]

Thanks for the explanation. It seems that you can only use I feel myself with the ing form, and indeed, it is a physical sensation. I feel myself neglected would be wrong, although I have seen similar phrases in books.

I feel neglected.
Myself, I feel neglected.

Both of those would sound ok although the second is a bit stiff and formal sounding. The ~ing form would be good as well.

I'm feeling neglected

[Serpent]

As a non-native I learned that you shouldn't say "I feel myself" unless you mean you're touching yourself That's maybe a bit of an oversimplification, but indeed to feel something means to touch it or sense it. In other IE languages it has less of an emphasis on physical touch and usually there are additional meanings like hear or smell. So it's a more abstract word maybe

[James29]

I neglected myself; I neglect myself; I feel I neglected myself; I felt I neglected myself and I feel I neglect myself are all perfectly fine ways of getting at the issue you are asking.

[golyplot]

I neglected myself; I neglect myself; I feel I neglected myself; I felt I neglected myself and I feel I neglect myself are all perfectly fine ways of getting at the issue you are asking.

Actually, there's a big difference in meaning between "I neglect myself" and "I feel neglected". The later is implying that others are doing the neglecting.

[James29]

I neglected myself; I neglect myself; I feel I neglected myself; I felt I neglected myself and I feel I neglect myself are all perfectly fine ways of getting at the issue you are asking.

Actually, there's a big difference in meaning between "I neglect myself" and "I feel neglected". The later is implying that others are doing the neglecting.

Right. So, what does "I feel myself neglected" mean?

[garyb]

I'd understand "I feel myself neglected" as "I feel myself being neglected [by another person or other people]", but it doesn't quite sound natural.

I have a Spanish friend of friend who's lived in the UK for several years and still says things like "I feel myself bad". Even though I've studied Spanish and understand where it comes from, it takes my brain few seconds to understand it because the "myself" just sends my mental parsing in a completely different direction. Not at all a rude one per Serpent's post; after the "myself" I just expect a construction with a verb like "being" so an adjective throws me off. For someone who doesn't know any Spanish it must be even more confusing.