This place was/got abandoned a long time ago.

[Marika33]

If I say, "This place was abandoned a long time ago", does it have to mean that this place isn't abandoned any longer?
I just think that if this place is still abandoned, it's best to say, "This place got abandoned a long time ago", by analogy with being/getting married.

1A. He got married a long time ago. (He may or may not be married now)
2A. He was married a long time ago. (He's not married now)

1B. This place got abandoned a long time ago. (This place may or may not be abandoned now)
2B. This place was abandoned a long time ago. (But now it's not, probably)

 

[emsr2d2]

We don't say "got abandoned".

 

[Marika33]

We don't say "got abandoned".

Are you sure there's no context in English that would be fine for this phrase to be used?

got abandoned - began being abandoned.
was abandoned - the whole time something was abandoned.

got married - began being married.
was married - the whole time somebody was married.

 

[Tarheel]

If a house was abandoned nobody lives there anymore, and nobody looks after the place.

If somebody got married they went through the process of changing their status to being married.

If somebody was married that suggests to me that they are no longer married. Either they got divorced or their spouse died.

 

[jutfrank]

This place was abandoned a long time ago.

As with another of your recent threads, this sentence is ambiguous. You can interpret abandoned as either a state or an action.

A speaker may well use a long time ago to emphasise that it is not abandoned at the time of speaking, but no, it doesn't have to mean that.

1A. He got married a long time ago. (He may or may not be married now)

Right. the sentence itself doesn't say anything about him now.

2A. He was married a long time ago. (He's not married now)

That's not accurate. We don't know if he's married now as the sentence doesn't say anything about the present. There's a heavy implication that he's not married now but the sentence doesn't mean that.

 

[Marika33]

As with another of your recent threads, this sentence is ambiguous.

Absolutely correct! That's the very reason why I'm choosing such sentences! They are the only ones that can help me understand what I need to understand.

2A. He was married a long time ago. (He's not married now)

That's not accurate. We don't know if he's married now as the sentence doesn't say anything about the present. There's a heavy implication that he's not married now but the sentence doesn't mean that.

Agreed. I just wanted to make things a little simplier for this question. I understand that the sentence itself doesn't tell us whether "he" is still married or not, even though the lack of context might imply he's no longer married.

 

[Piscean]

got abandoned - began being abandoned.
was abandoned - the whole time something was abandoned.

got married - began being married.
was married - the whole time somebody was married.

got abandoned - unnatural
was abandoned - 1. people left it /gave it up 2. was in a state of having-been abandoned
got married - went through a wedding ceremony
was married - 1. went through a wedding ceremony 2. had a spouse

 

[Marika33]

got abandoned - unnatural
was abandoned - 1. people left it /gave it up 2. was in a state of having-been abandoned
got married - went through a wedding ceremony
was married - 1. went through a wedding ceremony 2. had a spouse

Wow! I didn't know "was married" could work as "got married". But... at the same time "got abandoned" isn't used at all...

Do you ever get amazed at how weirdly English works, or are you so used to it that you don't even notice it?

 

[Tarheel]

Different words have different meanings.

 

[emsr2d2]

Wow! I didn't know "was married" could work as "got married" no full stop here but ... at the same time "got abandoned" isn't used at all.

Do you ever get Are you ever amazed at how weirdly English works, or are you so used to it that you don't even notice it?

Native English speakers are rarely surprised, let alone amazed, at their own language. In fact, unless we're teaching it to someone else, we don't think about it at all. Native speakers who have never studied grammar (the majority) probably wouldn't even understand why anyone else is surprised.