Vagaries of the English Language

[SimonDoom]

I have no idea what any of that means, and the brain cells that deal with it just exploded.

I lie on the bed. (present)

I lay on the bed. (past)

I have lain on the bed. (past participle)

The above are intransitive because there's no object following the verb.



I lay the book on the bed. (present)

I laid the book on the bed. (past)

I have laid the book on the bed. (past participle)

The above are transitive because the object "book" follows the verb.

 

[jaF0]

I have laid the book on the bed. (past participle)

If you laid the book on the edge of the bed where it was almost falling off, would it be a dangling participle?

 

[jehoram]

I get even more peeved at novelist Joan Didion, author of the novel Play It As It Lays. The title makes me cringe.

You've obviously not been around golfers. The phrase "play it as it lays" is one of the oldest and most important expressions of that sport. It means, of course, that you cannot improve the lie* of the ball when you find it; you have to play it exactly where it came to rest, or as close to it as you can simulate.

*That's another one: the use of "lie" as the position of a thing, or as a dishonesty. And if Dylan sang "Lie Lady Lie," it would have sounded like a command: "Never tell me the truth! Never!" And that wouldn't do at all, would it? But he knew better, and that's why he's got a Nobel Prize for Literature and we don't.

 

[SimonDoom]

You've obviously not been around golfers. The phrase "play it as it lays" is one of the oldest and most important expressions of that sport. It means, of course, that you cannot improve the lie* of the ball when you find it; you have to play it exactly where it came to rest, or as close to it as you can simulate.

*That's another one: the use of "lie" as the position of a thing, or as a dishonesty. And if Dylan sang "Lie Lady Lie," it would have sounded like a command: "Never tell me the truth! Never!" And that wouldn't do at all, would it? But he knew better, and that's why he's got a Nobel Prize for Literature and we don't.

I've spent my whole life around golfers. I'm familiar with the phrase, but I've also frequently, perhaps even more often, heard it said as, "Play it where it lies." The official Golf Rule 13 says, "The ball must be played as it lies." When I've played golf I've never used the word "lay" in place of "lie."

In both the Dylan song and Didion's book title the justification is that it sounds more pleasing, because of the rhyme, and also because as you suggest it avoids the implication that he wants the lady to fib. So it's justifiable in that sense, but it's interesting just how often people get the verbs mixed up in ordinary usage.

 

[jehoram]

I've spent my whole life around golfers. I'm familiar with the phrase, but I've also frequently, perhaps even more often, heard it said as, "Play it where it lies." The official Golf Rule 13 says, "The ball must be played as it lies." When I've played golf I've never used the word "lay" in place of "lie."

I picked it up from my dad, who was from upstate New York, so it might have been a more common expression there. And that expression was the only time he used it. In every other circumstance, as you've noted, he used the word "lie" as a noun ... "the lie of the ball" or "improve the lie." I don't remember him using either "lie" or "lay" as a verb in any golfing context. He'd use the word "put" instead. ("I'm going to try to put the ball on the green." "You can pick up your marker and put the ball down now.")

It must have been some snooty grammarian who got to the PGA and made them correct Rule 13.

 

[Thefireflies]

I recently wrote of a man’s reaction to his mate’s teasing him out for failing to procure a woman’s phone number, where he took it in good humour, with a smile, ‘…but disappointment reigned in his heart…’

Then I wondered, was it reigned, reined, or rained?

I’d prefer reigned, but they all work, where reigned refers to rule (disappointment ruled his heart), reined pertains to a means of control (disappointment controlled his heart), and rain is falling drops of condensed water (disappointment fell or condensed in his heart).

 

[Ginlover]

I recently wrote of a man’s reaction to his mate’s teasing him out for failing to procure a woman’s phone number, where he took it in good humour, with a smile, ‘…but disappointment reigned in his heart…’

Then I wondered, was it reigned, reined, or rained?

I’d prefer reigned, but they all work, where reigned refers to rule (disappointment ruled his heart), reined pertains to a means of control (disappointment controlled his heart), and rain is falling drops of condensed water (disappointment fell or condensed in his heart).

Reined is the most commonly misused word. In a study reign was used something like 47% of the time when it should have been reined, compared to authors using would ‘of’ instead of have which is less than 1% in the study. I might have the figures wrong but that’s how I remember them

Free rein is a horse riding term. You let the reins get longer allowing the horse to stretch, or gallop or turn. You give the horse a free rein.

Reign means ruling other people. You used it correcting as the disappointment is ruling his heart. But if you had said about his heart having free will to be disappointed it would be. He gave disappointment a free rein in his heart.