Using Sí After a Preposition
I´m unable to make sense of this example from a grammar text
"Hoy los chicos se escuchan a sí mismos y no se ponen de acuerdo entre sí."
I´m having trouble with the reflexive "se escuchan" in combination with the prepositional phrase "a sí mismos". I have a feeling I'm dealing with multiple idiomatic expressions.
I did a search on "sí" in the answers archive but got nothing.
Can someone help in translating and explaining what's going on in this sentence?
2 Answers
Think of the "a sí mismos" as a clarifying prepositional phrase referring to se just as Spanish uses them to clarify le in sentences with an indirect object.
Juan le dio el libro a María. (a María is a prepositional phrase clarifying who le is)
Hoy los chicos se escuchan a sí mismos .... (a sí mismos is a prepositional phrase clarifying who se is)
The children are listening to themselves and aren't coming to an agreement among themselves.
The above suggestion is predicated on the fact that the se is being used reflexively in the sentence (which it is). Spanish has another common use for se (termed the detransitizing se by Lazaus in an old thread) that you might find used with verbs like escuchar.
Escuchar is commonly used transitively.
Los chicos escuchan música. (The children are listening to music.)
Los chicos se escuchan. The children are listening. (Describing their state-No direct object. The se was used to make the sentence intransitive).
That's not what's happening here, but I thought I would mention it just to add to your confusion. 
I think it means: today the boys listen to themselves (meaning: to each other) and don't agree between them (meaning: with each other). I'm not very good with explaining grammar I'm afraid, I'm more of an intuitive learner.
