past participle problem....

[Rachelina]

I have a question. Recently, a friend of mine told me about a correction she made to a memo that was posted at her place of work. There was a sign posted next to a frequently used item stating the following:
"this can be gotten in [department]."
My friend, feeling this to be incorrect, wrote "who wrote this?" on the memo.
The next day, at work, she noticed that someone had replied to her question with this: "who wrote THIS? Learn your english, it's a past participle!"
Now we are going CRAZY!! Who is correct? My friend and I think that "this can BE GOTTEN in [department]" sounds awkward, but are we in the wrong?
Thank you so much for your response!
Rachelina

[Tdol]

If you changed the word, you would be using a past participle:
This can be acquired/obtained, etc.
Therefore, it would seem that the writer is correct. I believe that some American speakers don't like the use of 'gotten' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America...h_differences), but grammatically, I can see nothing wrong with the memo, though I am a British English speaker and would say 'got'.

[JaneP]

I agree. A lot of traditional grammarians have a problem with the word 'got' to mean 'ontain' there is no reasonable reason why they should. As far as grammar goes - it is correct.