Re: USAGE: "gotten" (was: Latin) verb examples and tense meanings
| From: | Padraic Brown <pbrown@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, January 20, 2000, 22:21 |
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On Thu, 20 Jan 2000, Nik Taylor wrote:
>Padraic Brown wrote:
>> Hardly nonsense! Take a 30 year old who is constantly getting himself
>> into trouble and who ought to know better: he certainly hasn't gotten
>> any sense yet! Certainly nonsense with the meaning or intention of "he
>> has no sense".
>
>I dunno, I'd never say "He hasn't gotten any sense". I'd say "He's got
>no sense" or "He has no sense". Possession of sense does, admittedly,
>imply acquisition of sense, but nevertheless, to state it as "he hasn't
>acquired any sense" is just very unnatural, at least to me.
>
Well, yes. But these mean completely different things!
He hasn't got any sense = he's got no sense.
He hasn't gotten any sense = he's acquired / amassed no sense
I, too, probably wouldn't say "He hasn't gotten any sense." as a
sentence just like that. I'd add "yet" or "since the day he was born /
dropped on his head / etc."
Padraic.