lie/lay alternation - not US

[Benjamin Barrett]

Excellent! I love the second explanation. It works in parallel both for irrealis and rhyming.

BB

On Oct 4, 2011, at 9:09 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

>
> 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

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