Re: verbs

[John Kohl <sasjqk -at- UNX -dot- SAS -dot- COM>]

In article <c=US%a=_%p=NCS%l=NCS/MESA/00036A06 -at- mesa-mx1 -dot- ncslink -dot- com>, "Wittel,
Teresa J." <WITTTJ -at- ncslink -dot- com> writes:
|> Jason Willebeek-LeMair is absolutely correct <giggle><snort> when he
|> says:
|>
|> Actually, display has an intransitive use.
|>
[...]
|>
|> In this vein, I suppose lay also has an intransitive use, which I also
|> don't use very often.  (Evil grin...)

Well, no, actually I think you are thinking of "get" plus the past
participle of "lay." It's still transitive; it's just been passivized,
and the agent--s/he who is doing the laying--is not expressed.

This is referred to in ESL texts as a "get-passive" construction.  As
you know, usually some form of the verb "to be" is used to form the
passive voice in English.  When "get" is used instead, it often carries
a negative connotation, as in "My car got stolen while I was in New York
last week." (New Yorkers, feel free to take offense.)  But clearly this
is not the case when "get" is used in a passive "lay" construction.


John Kohl
(representing only myself, not my employer)

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