Pedants' Paradise

[ardcarp]

ff, I notice that you use a nautical example...'The ship was headed for Nukuhiva'.
'Heading' is definitely OK in that context, though not 'heads' which means something entirely different to sailors.

[gurnemanz]

ff, I notice that you use a nautical example...'The ship was headed for Nukuhiva'.
'Heading' is definitely OK in that context, though not 'heads' which means something entirely different to sailors.

Maybe a slight difference between "heading" and "headed"

The ship was headed for Nukuhiva - denotes its current state or position. Verb 'to be' + past participle adjective. As in: The ship was lost. (Could also be passive - someone lost it)

The ship was heading - the present continuous aspect of a verb denotes an action going on.

Similar case:

"He was sitting in the corner." As a present continuous form it would denote an action he is currently performing - going to the corner and sitting down there. But also used to denote his current static position.

Whereas "He was sat in the corner" unambiguously denotes his position. Some frown on this usage but it is OK by me.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Whereas "He was sat in the corner" unambiguously denotes his position. Some frown on this usage but it is OK by me.

It isn't usage. It's misusage. You can only be "sat" in a corner if someone has put you there. You wouldn't say you were ate your lunch whilst in that corner.

[french frank]

ff, I notice that you use a nautical example...'The ship was headed for Nukuhiva'.
'Heading' is definitely OK in that context, though not 'heads' which means something entirely different to sailors.

The OED has several nautical examples, but this one was under a different, erm, heading. If I understand the nautical use, the example quoted could have two slightly different meanings, one that the course of the ship('s head) was (altered and) set [towards Nukuhiva], the other more generally just moving on its way towards which seems to be the usage you originally cited?

[ardcarp]

'What's our heading?' is a frequently asked question from the navigator doing chartwork down below to the helmsperson on deck. The answer required is a compass reading, e.g. 080° or a more old-fashioned and less precise 'East by North'. Of course modern chart-plotters...the ocean equivalent of satnavs....have to some extent superseded this older compass-speak. Proper sailors still learn it and use it though. Am I getting off the subject.....?

[Serial_Apologist]

'What's our heading?' is a frequently asked question from the navigator doing chartwork down below to the helmsperson on deck. The answer required is either a compass reading, e.e. 080° or a more old-fashioned 'East by North'. (Of course modern chart-plotters...the ocean equivalent of satnavs....have to some extent superseded this older compass-speak. Proper sailors still learn it and use it though. Am I getting off the subject.....?

Heading used as a noun rather than a verb? Yes, I think so.

[ardcarp]

Exactly.

[kernelbogey]

... "He was sat in the corner" unambiguously denotes his position. Some frown on this usage but it is OK by me.

I have the impression that this is a matter of dialect - I think I have heard this usage more from northern English speakers. So 'headed' might, too, fall into such a category.

[ardcarp]

"He was sat in the corner" unambiguously denotes his position.

Maybe, but it doesn't explain how he got there. I agree with Alpie:

It isn't usage. It's misusage. You can only be "sat" in a corner if someone has put you there.

I suppose it can be excused on the grounds of dialect.

[oddoneout]

"He was sitting in the corner." As a present continuous form it would denote an action he is currently performing - going to the corner and sitting down there. But also used to denote his current static position.

Whereas "He was sat in the corner" unambiguously denotes his position. Some frown on this usage but it is OK by me.

Some time ago there was an article in the local rag written by someone (I assume young/new to the job) who used the "was sat" version throughout, instead of seated or sitting. It would have been clumsy if a spoken report to camera, but for it to have gone to print like that didn't in my view reflect well on the paper's usually high standard of writing, or the editorial team.
The dialect excuse wouldn't work, since in these parts it is "were a sitt'n" not "was sat"...

[french frank]

Some time ago there was an article in the local rag written by someone (I assume young/new to the job) who used the "was sat" version throughout, instead of seated or sitting. It would have been clumsy if a spoken report to camera, but for it to have gone to print like that didn't in my view reflect well on the paper's usually high standard of writing, or the editorial team.
The dialect excuse wouldn't work, since in these parts it is "were a sitt'n" not "was sat"...

A pity that the OED lexicographer link fails here, but this bit seems explanatory:

"We suspect that in some cases “sat” is being used in place of “seated” (that is, as the past tense of the verb “seat”) rather than in place of “sitting.” So “we were sat around the coffee table” may be another way of saying “we were seated around the coffee table.”

[Sir Velo]

Whereas "He was sat in the corner" unambiguously denotes his position. Some frown on this usage but it is OK by me.

No. "He was sat" is transitive. In other words, that someone positioned that person there. It is an example of total grammatical incompetence for it to be used as an intransitive verb. It should be either: "He sat in the corner"; or "He was sitting in the corner", unless you are indicating that some outside agency physically forced him into a sitting position. If you can find an example of the current (ab)usage from before, say the turn of the millennium, I will be much surprised. Heaven help us if this is how English is taught in schools these days!

[french frank]

No. "He was sat" is transitive. In other words, that someone positioned that person there. It is an example of total grammatical incompetence for it to be used as an intransitive verb. Heaven help us if this is how English is taught in schools these days!

I doubt very much that it is 'taught in schools', but it is how some people use it and others hear it and copy it. Language is how it's used, not a collection of rigid laws. It may be 'non-standard' (i.e. minority usage, dialectal) but language will continue to be useful in communicatin, however many non-standard usages are spawned.

[gurnemanz]

'He was sat in the corner' surely has two underlying syntatactic structures:

1 Passive. Someone seated him there
2 Verb 'to be' + past participle adjective denoting his state or position.

Likewise in sentences like:
The factory was located in Germany
1) Its permanent position
2) Where someone built it

Similar potential ambiguities:

The window was broken.
The car was stolen.
Etc etc

[Serial_Apologist]

On today's lunchtime news (BBC1) -

"Teenagers over the age of 12 will be expected to take the jab".