lie/lay alternation - not US

[Laurence Horn]

Sheer speculation:  Maybe "lay with", with human object, is too close to "lay" (tr.), so "lie" in line 3 is a quasi-euphemism.  I know, doesn't explain why "lie" isn't used throughout.  Another perhaps more likely possibility:  The "if" in lines 1,2 induces an irrealis tense shift, where "lay" is past of "lie" (cf. "If I were to lie with you").  In this case, there'd be no appreciable difference between the below quatrain and e.g.

If I sat here
If I just sat here
Would you sit with me
And just forget the world?

LH


On Oct 4, 2011, at 11:09 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:

> In the song "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol, the words lay and lie appear as intransitive verbs.
>
> One stanza has both and is repeated four times (http://www.elyrics.net/read/s/snow-patrol-lyrics/chasing-cars-lyrics.html):
>
> If I lay here
> If I just lay here
> Would you lie with me
> And just forget the world?
>
> The enunciation is clear in each instance. Although it's possible that "lie" means "tell a lie," it looks like euphonic alternation to me.
>
> The song was written by Gary Lightbody (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Lightbody), who was born in Northern Ireland and went to university in Scotland.
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org