Re: USAGE: gotten

Tristan McLeay wrote:
> > Had i erased all of these emails on this subject, i'd not have gotten this
> > far. I wonder if you've gotten the sarcasm of my email. ;).
>
> Okay... I definitely have no idea.
Speaking for my dialect.

Gotten is used for get when it means:
Receive
Make/become (as in "get ready", "get things the way you like them")*
Understand**
Arrive*
Etc.

Got is used when it means:
possess ("I've got one brother")
must (I've got to get this done")
Understand**

For me, that's it.  "(have) got" is, in fact, probably best analyzed as
a form of "have".

*"Got" is used by some here, but in my idiolect, it's ungramatical.
**This is a weird one.  I think that "got" is used when the thing being
understood is unstated, for example, "I've got it!" or "Have you got
it?" but, "Have you gotten the sarcasm of this e-mail?"

So, your sentence that you weren't sure about, I'd say "I appear to have
GOTTEN confused", because in that case, it means "become confused".

--
"There's no such thing as 'cool'.  Everyone's just a big dork or nerd,
you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." -
overheard
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