Word use question...

[fajrdrako]

When I read Torchwood: Almost Perfect by James Goss, I noticed that he had a way of using the verb 'to sit' that was new to me. Instead of saying "he sat" or "he was sitting" or even "he sat down", he'd say, "he was sat". Sounds passive to me, but clearly wasn't meant to be. There was no agent but the subject doing the sitting.

I've noticed this several times since, always in a British context. Just now I heard someone say, "you must have been sat in the row behind me" instead of (as I would say) "you must have sat".

Could someone explain to me how this works? Is it a new British expression?

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Ah - just new to me! Does it mean the same as 'he sat', or is there some nuance I don't know?

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

'I was sat right behind you' is the sort of thing I might say, though if I *wrote* it I would use 'I was sitting'. I'm beginning to think it might be a northern thing as I can't recall any of my southern friends actually using it in speech, but I've heard lots of my northern friends say it.

I think it's just another of those ungrammatical spoken things.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It might well be northern. Much as I love the north of England, I've never (sadly) spent much time there, not enough to know phrases like that.

I love colloquialisms, especially when they are new to me.

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

I just told her I'd say it (and my kids would say it too) so maybe it is my Northern roots showing :D

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It's all in the perspective - where you are, what you hear.

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

I was born in the South my parents (and all my siblings) are from Manchester: on top of that my mother had measles when she was an infant, which affected her hearing (and then she lost even more of it in her late teens/early twenties).
Between the Northern influences and my mother not always having heard stuff correctly in the first place some of my speech patterns are not only not correct for Southern England but not quite correct for Northern England either...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I seem to have certain pronunciations all my own. Always did. Don't have a good ear for how things are said. But being Ottawa born and bred, I'm sure I sound like an Ottawa person - though when I was young people said I sounded 'continental'. Whatever that means! I took it as a good thing.

When I studied Welsh (briefly) as a teen, I had two teachers, married to each other. One was from North Wales, one from South. They used to stop to argue about the 'right' way to say things, which we clueless Canadians thought was hilarious.

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

They used to stop to argue about the 'right' way to say things
He said tom-ah-to, she said tom-ay-to?? I cannot wrap my head around that conversation's Welsh equivalent would sound - almost, but not quite.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

LOL - you have to have the right song'n'dance team.