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Just imagine David Attenborough: "This bunch of ripe bananas looks beautiful and pristine. But it hides a dangerous beast: the deadly black tarantula." It's
by gwd 4y ago
Just imagine David Attenborough:
"This bunch of ripe bananas looks beautiful and pristine. But it hides a dangerous beast: the deadly black tarantula."
It's well-accepted usage to say "Inanimate object X hides object Y", even if Y is an intelligent agent which has hidden itself.
- autoexec 4y agoI think it's the phrasing that gets to me. "Hide the deadly black tarantula" sounds like an instruction, while "Hiding deadly black tarantula" or even "Hides the deadly black tarantula" sounds more natural.
- gwd 4y agoIndeed, "A beautiful bunch of ripe bananas hides the deadly black tarantula" would indeed be more in line with the "official" US dialect of English. But part of Belafonte's goal in writing the song was to honor his Jamaican heritage; so he wrote the song in the dialect of the people who would be doing the work described. Hence "Daylight come and me wan' go home" rather than "Daylight is coming and I want to go home"; "tally me bananas" rather than "tally my bananas", and "hide" rather than "hides".