"You lie!"

No, this isn't about Joe Wilson's rude outburst during President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress. It's about one of my many pet peeves (imagine that, a house full of peeves running around, crying for attention, making a mess everywhere) – the verb "to lie."

My students get this wrong all the time and they groan in frustration whenever I bring it up, because (a) they don't get it, and (b) they don't understand why it matters. Actually, lots of people don't understand why it matte...