James Joyce's English

[Xinfu]

-She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue. Her head was leaned (=the passive voice being used) against the window curtains and [...]

My friend says the passive voice of lean in this case is wrong, and Joyce's English is not always grammatical; do you agree? I'm not sure, because in English grammar there are aspects in which usage is not consistent, and transitivity is one of them.

[Sancho Panther]

I think writers are allowed a bit of grammatical leeway if complements the story - creativity I suppose you'd call it!

[Wardie1993]

Leaned/Leant are the past tense and past participle forms of Lean, the example you give is (largely) written in the past tense, so since the example is largely in the past tense the past tense form of Lean is used, novels tend to be written in the past tense, so past tense verbs tend be used (though there are a few irregularities, for example in this example the watching is used instead of watched).

E.G.

She sat (past tense) at the window watching (present tense, a grammatical irregularity) the evening invade the avenue. Her head was leaned (past tense) against the window curtains ...


I hope this helped you.

[Rusty]

There is nothing ungrammatical about the sentences that were posted. The author is using normal, everyday English constructs. Let's put some names on those constructs.

'Watching' is not a verb. It's a gerund being used as an adverb to tell us how she was sitting. It modifies the only verb in the sentence - 'sat'.

'Her head was leaned' is an example of the 'subject / subject complement' structure.
The subject complement here used to be called a predicate adjective, because it is modifying a noun. The copula, or linking verb, 'was' is in the past tense. It links the subject 'head' to the predicate adjective "leaned". "Leaned" is a past participle, not a past tense verb. Past participles can be used as an adjective, which is the case here.

Her head is leaning. This is a description of the angle of her head. That's all. It wasn't leaned by some agent, which is what we'd use the passive mood to suggest.

[Xinfu]

Excellent answer, Rusty. Thank you.

My thanks to other native English speakers as well.

[MWoll]

If it's a question of transitivity, then your friend is incorrect thinking "to lean" is only transitive.

The house leaned to the left. (intransitive)
I leaned against the house. (intransitive)
I leaned myself against the house. (transitive, and limited to talking about yourself in the 3rd person.)
I leaned the ladder against the house. (transitive)

[Xinfu]

Excellent answer. Thank you.