Don't "lay" me, man!

[ellenkushner]

Does there already exist a website or blog that logs and deplores the regular grammatical depredations of that formerly esteemed beacon of journalism, The New York Times? We take as our text today this verse from Section Metro, Page 26, Column 5 ("Congresswoman Collapses at Clinton Rally) :

Someone shouted, "Is there a doctor here?" while others lay the congresswoman on the floor.

Comments

[tournevis.livejournal.com]

Ooo, that one hurt.

[voidmonster.livejournal.com]

No.

No, no, no.


Oh, sorry. I don't know if there's a central place of punishments for such crimes, but I can only hope there is.

I'm in full-on sculpting head and that punctured right on through all my non-verbal art-atavism. It hurt.

[unovis-lj.livejournal.com]

There's always cranky_editors.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Right out in public?

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

It would still be "laid" (or possibly "layed"?), goddammit!

[miep.livejournal.com]

unfortunately, I think that it is technically correct, but it's so very, very wrong otherwise....

[miep.livejournal.com]

oh, wait, i hadn't caught that it was in the past tense.

laid. laid. laid. laid. laid.

had lain.

did lay.

she lay there for a long time.


I think I'd better go lie down....

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Crossposted with you. OK. My faith in (your) humanity is restored.

[miep.livejournal.com]

oh good! for pete's sake, I'm a teacher! you'd think I would read more carefully before making grammatical pronouncements...

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

More careful? On the contrary - I should think being a teacher means you're constantly thinking on your feet, being required to make pronouncements on the spot - I can only imagine how hard that is, and how many times the "esprit de l'escalier" must attack you afterwards. Kudos.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

How can it be correct? I'm not enough of a grammarian to give the technical terms, but the past tense of causing someone to lie is "laid." You can say "Yesterday she lay on the floor" but not "Yesterday I lay her on the floor." It's "I laid her on the floor." Surely.

[nohwhere-man.livejournal.com]

Sigh, yes. I blame society, and automatic spelling checkers/correctors. (And why a good copy editor is worth their weight in something rare.)

Can we add also "terror" v. "terrorism" and all the variations therein? What is a "terror suspect" anyway? Someone wearing a gorilla suit and tentacled hood while they walk down 5th Ave? They're pretty terrifying.

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl of Murray,
And laid him on the green. [emphasis mine]

[gaedhal.livejournal.com]

No, that was the infamous Lady Mondegreen!

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

It was, so help me, the first example I could think of. I am a sad, sad little geek.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Well at least they didn't say "while the congresswoman laid on the floor"--but they may as well have.

Sheesh.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

They have a problem with incorrect word usage also. The NYT, for example, now shows chronic effect/affect confusion. Occasionally there are hair-raising malapropisms and, often, grammar errors. For the most shamefully egregious errors, I write a letter to the editor, which they can ignore if they like but I do hope that some of the worst get forwarded back to the section editors and article writers.

It is a sad age when the Onion has consistently better copy-editing than The New York Times, but that is where we are. The Boston Globe apparently fired all their proofreaders and copy editors some years ago.

[dremiel.livejournal.com]

The focus is more fact-checking than grammar but http://www.regrettheerror.com/ is ALWAYS worth a look. Except for the part where I get depressed that the same news outlets keep making the same errors.

[readwrite.livejournal.com]

I've freelanced at the Times. There is a file that gets circulated with all sorts of errors great and small that people find. You can bet this will show up there and that whatever copy editor let it through will hang his or her head in shame.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

I am so glad to hear that. You mean someone there will actually notice? I don't have to vote my conscience and write them a letter? I hate writing letters to the editor - it always seems like such a waste of time.

Err . . .

[medievalist.livejournal.com]

It's awkward, I know, but it's not actually grammatically wrong.

It's an-in-the-moment sort of thing--the shouting happend while the err, laying, is taking place.

It gets tricky because the lay in question is the transitive verb.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/76/L0077600.html

Substitute the word place for lay, and it's fine. So is lay.

Re: Err . . .

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Very interesting. I am keenly aware that we are in the middle of a great Lie/Lay Shift - most of the people I know, especially those under 35, no longer seem to know the difference - but I had assumed that was entirely due to the Forces of Darkness winning the war against complexity in language.

I now select my yoga instructors entirely on their ability not to say, "Now everyone, lay down on your mats."

(OK, not true - but would it were possible!)

[minami-neko.livejournal.com]

Ouch.

Hey, I have a new design up at cafepress! I really like this one. I borrowed the swords from your website for it.

http://www.cafepress.com/swordspoint/4748908

[handworn.livejournal.com]

* Snort *

Don't DO that when I'm taking a sip!