Tom was lying in bed, on the phone with Jack.

[diamondcutter]

1. Tom was lying in bed, talking on the phone with Jack.
2. Tom was lying in bed, on the phone with Jack.

I wrote the two sentences to mean the same thing. Is the second one acceptable?

 

[Tarheel]

They mean the same thing to me.

 

[emsr2d2]

You can dispense with "lying". We don't do much else in bed (although it's possible to sit up in bed).

Tom was in bed, on the phone to Jack.

 

[5jj]

You can dispense with "lying". We don't do much else in bed

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, they both mean the same thing. I mean, it is conceivable that two people can be connected via a phone line without doing any talking whatsoever, but any sane person would interpret that Tom and Jack were actually talking.