Thursday, 30 January 2014

Linguistic Despair

One does not wish to appear unnecessarily arcane. Never let it be said that metaphorically 'moving with the times' is beyond the realms of personal achievement. One is also not known for tedious adherence to what some humorously (or otherwise) regard as the 'grammar police.'

However my instincts and, as it were, 'natural heckles' were raised by gratingly inappropriate phraseology today.

It was enquired during an online survey whether I had ever "gotten asked" about a subject before. Setting aside the awful Americanism implied in such a 'jargonistic' phrase it seemed wholly unnecessary. Gotten is a past participle of get. Would it have been too much to ask; 'have you been asked before' or something equally appropriate?

Whilst I understand the OED expresses that 'gotten' dates back to Middle English it is certainly no longer part of general usage in the current vocabulary. Even the North American version of 'gotten' is said to imply the process of obtaining ownership (for example, he had been and gotten us tickets for Lords). Whereas got is said to show possession (for example, he had already got tickets for the cricket).

Thus in this instance - that of the survey - 'gotten' became wholly redundant anyway.

Perhaps one is being a tad pedantic, but that cannot be helped when something seems so glaringly anachronistic.

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