INSINNUENDOS ABOUT CONTRAPONENT "LAY" AND PRETERITIVE "HAVE GOT (TO)"

© 2000 by Orchid Land Publications

[9-7-00]

Charles-James N. Bailey

CONTRAPONENT "LAY"

     We often use a causative (therefore transitive) verb contraponentially, i.e. with passive or reflexive force--usually with an adverbial modifier.  Thus, "That article translates easily" means that the book "gets translated" in such and such a manner.   Causatives are formed with the endings -en, -ize, -ify, and not seldom -ate and -(m)ent (with secondary stress, as in ánimàte, ímplemént; cf. a few like frequént and absént with full stress on the final formative).  Other causatives have a prefixed en- (encourage; note enliven, with "en" prefixed and suffixed!), and some have no morphological trait (e.g. choke, bloody, corrupt, desert); in "bloody up," the up (cf. other postverbs like out; cf. in in vote in) fills the same rôle as a causative suffix.  Using lay in the sense of "lie" is just such a usage.  It should not be unacceptable.  Some people overcorrect and use lie for "lay"--which, if it were not an overcorrection, would not necessarily be bad grammar.  
     Using intransitive verbs as transitives is a more hazardous undertaking, there very often results a special sense ("He drinks" = "He's a drunkard") or something that is intentionally ironic ("The government disappeared them") or jocular ("goof up").  Some uses are quite acceptable; "They married."  Cf. "They okayed the order," with the verb okay constructed on the ("intransitive") adjective okay.  It would require research to say whether increase, descend, or innovate was originally transitive or intransitive in English.  Others are very hard to envision in transitive uses--limp, lounge.  When nouns are used as verbs, they can be intransitive (e.g. goof) or transitive (e.g. quiz).  Even a preposition can be made into a verb--e.g. out (as in "She outed them"). 

PRETERITIVE "HAVE GOT (TO)"

     In North America, some think that the compound in question is wrong.  But even Classical Greek and Latin had preteritives.  A Latin verb for "know" is literally "have come to know."  "Hate" is similar.  "Know" in Greek is historically "have seen."