I've checked Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and I found that die is an intransitive verb most of the time. I checked other dictionaries as well. I didn't find any usage of "die" as per which we can say, "He died himself."
I want to know whether this usage is correct and on what basis.
Additionally, I find examples of this usage on British National Corpus as well. I searched [die] [p*] in it and found died himself, died oneself, etc. When I search on Google "he died himself" (with quotes). I find many examples there as well.
Learn English – Is “He died himself.” a correct sentence
intransitiveintransitive-verbstransitivetransitive-verbsword-usage
Best Answer
The example "he died himself" is grammatical provided it occurs in a context which allows "himself" to be interpreted as a sort of intensifier. For instance, "The doctor devoted his life to preventing death, but in the end, he died himself." Or, the intensifier can occur immediately after the noun phrase it intensifies -- " ... he himself died."
At any rate, the "himself" in such a case is not the object of the verb, but serves another function.
(I'm not sure "intensifier" is a real grammatical term -- I just made it up. Edit: Or else it was a dim memory. @Lawrence in the comments gives a reference to this nice typological account of intensifiers, which discusses the connection with reflexives: Focussed Assertion of Identity: A Typology of Intensifiers.)