Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2007

We're told that UK people don't say "gotten".

Americans say "I have gotten" to mean "I have acquired" and
"I have got" to mean "I possess".

No, we say them like you do. We don't say "have gotten" for those forms.

These feel so different from the kind where we use "gotten" that I don't
think of them as being an "exception." We don't think of these as being
conjugations of "to get," if that makes any sense to you. It's like they
are two special verb idioms using the word "got" as a sort of auxiliary
which does not conjugate.

Possession -- "to have" a thing and "to have got" a thing are both used
in US English. "I have a problem." "I've got a problem."

Obligation -- "to have to" and "to have got to" do something are
interchangeable. "I have to go to work." "I've got to go to work."

If you have to use the past tense for those, the "got" disappears
entirely, usually to "I had."

The places you see "gotten" are various expressions based on the verb
"get." For example, the one meaning "lucky enough to be able to:
   "I get to see celebrities in my job,"
   "I got to see..."
   "I've gotten to see..."

Or the "get" that means "to reach a destination":
    We always get there on time.
    We got there an hour ago.
    We've gotten there many times before.

Or the "get" meaning to receive, or the one meaning to start moving,
or...

On Jul 30, 9:02 pm, matt271829-n...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

Most learners of English as second or foreign language tend to find
this point too confusing to grasp. In order to reduce confusion, I
will provide you with some explanation from the point of view of
Americans.

In standard American English, the word "have" can function as either a
lexical verb or an auxiliary verb. When used as a lexical verb, it
carries some certain meaning like possessing, holding, eating, etc.
When used as an auxiliary verb, it carries a certain grammatical
function but no meaning. In its latter function, it is used to change
the aspect of the verb following it into perfective. The verb that
follows auxiliary "have" is invariably used in its past participle
form.

Now, compare the following sentences:

1. Prof. Rod Ellis has a lot of articles on task-based language
teaching.
2. Prof. Rod Ellis has published a lot of articles on task-based
language teaching.

"Has" is used as a lexical verb in the first sentence but as an
auxiliary in the second sentence.

For Americans, there is no semantic difference between "have" as a
lexical verb and "have got". Hence, they may interchangeably use "have
got" instead of the lexical "have":

Prof. Rod Ellis has got a lot of articles on task-based language
teaching.

But they never use "have got" interchangeably with the auxiliary
"have".

*Prof. Rod Ellis has gotten published ....

Now let's turn our attention to the verb "get".

"Get" is a lexical verb with too many meanings to be mentioned here.
Some of the most common meanings it has are receiving, obtaining,
achieving, etc. Its past form is "got" and its past participle form is
"gotten" (Remember, my explanation is from the viewpoint of American
English). So, in order to change the tense of a sentence into present
perfect, Americans use the auxiliary "have" followed by "gotten":

I have gotten no emails from Prof. Ellis.

I guess the picture is by now clear, but one point is worth
mentioning. Using "have got" instead of the lexical verb "have" is by
and large less common in formal discourse and more common in informal
discourse.

In British English, the past participle form of the verb "get" is the
same as its past form - that is, "got". Following is the British
counterpart of the above American sentence:

I have got no emails from Prof. Ellis.

Farhad

My primary school teachers made it clear that the word "got" should
never pass our lips. In hindsight, I suspect that they were trying to
tell us that "I've got" was an unacceptable way to say "I have", that "I
got" should be "I obtained", and so on. Perhaps. If that's what they
were trying to teach us, they failed.

To this day, I feel uncomfortable using "got" in any context whatsoever.
Yes, I do use the word, but always with a slight feeling that I'm about
to be punished for uttering a taboo word.