lying vs. laying problem

[stenka25]

In a book, THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, there's a sentence like below.
To me, LAYING sounds strange, and LYING seems better.


▪ I saw Jane laying on her stomach next to the swimming pool.
[The catcher in the rye - J. D. Salinger]


Of course, I don't think J.D. Salinger made a mistake in the sentence.

But when I googled about this, it seems that LYING is more popular than LAYING.



▪ I saw him lying on his stomach. [447,000 sentences]



▪ I saw him laying on his stomach. [79,700 sentences]


So I concluded that though LAYING is still possible, LYING is more often used in this sentence.

Are you agree with that?

 

[sdgraham]

1. There are many, many previous threads on lying and laying.
2. Proper English is not a matter of Internet popularity. Google should never be consulted as an authority.
3 "I saw Jane laying on her stomach next to the swimming pool." Totally incorrect but discouragingly common.

 

[Jacobtm]

Stenka,

In this case, the more common use on Google does point to the "correct" usage of the verb.

However, we're talking about the speech of a teenage character in a novel. I'm sure Salinger knew this wasn't the "proper" way to use the word, but who speaks "proper" English really?

Although I don't share sdgraham's experience that "laying" in place of "lying" here really is that common, it sounds particularly odd to me, though maybe in Salinger's time it was more common.

 

[pickarooney]

Interesting, I always thought 'laying' was standard AmE for 'lying'.

 

[GreenWhiteBlue]

Interesting, I always thought 'laying' was standard AmE for 'lying'.

Really? How very odd. No, in AE -- just as in BE -- "lay" and "lie" are not the same verb.

In this case, the usage is ungramatical, and I fiind it likely that the ungrammatical usage was entirely intentional on the part of Salinger in order to represent the sort of mistake a schoolboy might make.

 

[stenka25]

Thanks all of you.
"Lying" is still correct since this sentence is not the mistake of the author but that of the schoolboy in the fiction.