DESNOROLATOR

[Slava]

Good to know the CPAP does not require exclusively sleeping on your back. For as long as I can remember I have always awoke laying (lying?) ....

Without question, unless you are a truly talented hen, able to peck out particularly pertinent posts to the always amazing Alpha Agora, you are most definitely not laying.

[Perry Lassiter]

Note this is a very democratic board. A word invented three months ago by a seven year old has struck serious comments into the second page! Doc, see if Abigail has any more creative terminology!

[bamaboy56]

Thanks, Slava, for giving me an easy way to resolve the laying/lying dilemma I usually have. Don't know why but I draw a blank with this word.

[Dr. Goodword]

What happens is that as your body tissues loses tone from aging, the soft palate does not escape this process. When it softens to a certain point, it begins to vibrate, resulting in snoring.

When it gets soft enough, it can plug up your pharynx, so you can't breathe. This is sleep apnia. You wake up realizing that you have not been breathing for some time, gasping for breath (if you wake up).

[Philip Hudson]

Slava: Is the truly talented hen you mentioned a disciple of Skinner?

[Slava]

Slava: Is the truly talented hen you mentioned a disciple of Skinner?

I'm lost. No clue as to the reference. The name, okay, but what it means here: eh?

[Slava]

What happens is that as your body tissues loses tone from aging, the soft palate does not escape this process. When it softens to a certain point, it begins to vibrate, resulting in snoring.

When it gets soft enough, it can plug up your pharynx, so you can't breathe. This is sleep apnia. You wake up realizing that you have not been breathing for some time, gasping for breath (if you wake up).

I do know this one. The panic attack of believing you aren't breathing really rots. However, I do believe the term is apnea. Phonetic spelling trips up even the best of us, no?

[wurdpurrson]

Another way to remember the "lie/lay" rule, is that lay (besides meaning a hen depositing an egg) means to put or place something: you lay the book or pencil down; you can also lay your body down (a somewhat poetic reference), but in the physical act of changing position, you lie down. By the same token, a person reclining beside the road is lying down, not laying - unless that person is extremely unusual and a chimera of human and hen.

When people training dogs tell them to "Lay down!" it makes me cringe...

[Slava]

Poetic license plays a role in the confusion, too.

"Now I lay me down to sleep..."
"Lay, Lady, Lay..."

And, of course, the past tense of lie is lay, so that just adds to the mess.

[bamaboy56]

Thanks Slava and Wurdpurrson for making the lie/lay situation clearer. Maybe lay being the past tense of lie is what keeps throwing me. MORE proof that English is a difficult language to learn! I agree with Perry, Doc, keep speaking to Abigail and get some more interesting terminology from her! Also, Doc, unfortunately my soft palate is not the only thing getting soft as I age. Sad I'm finding more and more saggy places as I go along.

[Perry Lassiter]

"Pharynx" triggered snother thought. I wonder why so many people pronounce it fair-nix?

[wurdpurrson]

They confuse it with phoenix? Some are just too verbally lazy to pay attention to how a word is actually spelled, I think. There's lots of common errors like that in Speakers of Their Own English Language.

[Philip Hudson]

Slava: Re your talented hen. I refer to the behaviorist, Skinner, who trained hens to peck out a certain tattoo on the floor of their cages in order to get food.

[Slava]

Slava: Re your talented hen. I refer to the behaviorist, Skinner, who trained hens to peck out a certain tattoo on the floor of their cages in order to get food.

Aha, thank you for the explanation. I now understand that to get fed, they needed to lay down a specific tune. Rock on, chicks!

[Philip Hudson]

It gives "sing for her supper" a different twist.