[Grammar] has gotten

[nininaz]

what does 'has gotten' mean ?
Hello All,
M: Hmm, when was the last time you logged in?
W: Beats me --- sometime last winter, maybe.
M: Well if you haven’t logged in for 180 days, you need to procure
a new password from the registrar’s office. Try that first. If that
doesn’t help, then maybe someone else has gotten a hold of
your username and password

2 get hold of something also get a hold of something

American English to find or borrow something so that you can use it:
I need to get hold of a car.
She managed to get a hold of a copy.

Is that Correct? somebody may find the username & password?
Thanks.

 

[SoothingDave]

Someone else may have the password, yes. Maybe they stole it through some computer hacking.

 

[Roman55]

what does 'has gotten' mean ?

I am not a teacher.

It is the AmE way of saying "has got".

 

[Veloviv]

As someone who uses BrE only, this word irks me.

 

[SoothingDave]

As someone who uses BrE only, this word irks me.

You joined the forum to say this? Welcome.

There is a distinction that I think the BrE has lost.

"I have got a car" is about possession.

"I have gotten a car" is about acquisition.

 

[Veloviv]

You joined the forum to say this? Welcome.

No, not particularly. Thank you.

There is a distinction that I think the BrE has lost.

"I have got a car" is about possession.

"I have gotten a car" is about acquisition.

In which case a user of BrE would use 'obtained' or 'acquired'.

 

[Roman55]

There is a distinction that I think the BrE has lost.

"I have got a car" is about possession.

"I have gotten a car" is about acquisition.

I am not a teacher.

I don't feel that BrE has lost this distinction, we just make it differently.

"I have a car" is about possession.

"I got a car" is about acquisition.

The problem with words like "get" is that their myriad meanings can make them useful for some, but reduce the lexicon of others. The smaller the vocabulary, the less nuance of expression there is.

 

[Raymott]

As someone who uses BrE only, this word irks me.

I'm surprised you don't speak AusE given your profile. Is there any reason you stick to British dialect? Do you reject all Americanisms, even those that have become 'normal' in AusE. And can you always tell where a new form has arisen?

 

[Veloviv]

I'm surprised you don't speak AusE given your profile. Is there any reason you stick to British dialect? Do you reject all Americanisms, even those that have become 'normal' in AusE. And can you always tell where a new form has arisen?

You've got me. I wasn't even aware of "Australian English", however it and BrE mustn't be too dissimilar.

What Americanisms are normalised in AusE?

The overuse of the superlative "awesome" is something that is really stuck in my craw.

 

[Raymott]

Yes, I don't like 'awesome' either. I also don't like the wrong use of 'absolutely, literal' etc.
There are a lot of differences between BrE and AusE, admittedly mostly in vocabulary and pronunciation, but there are grammatical usage differences as well. There are also other Englishes, if you'll excuse the term - which you'd pretty much have to if you studied linguistics. Some are more consistent with the concept of a standard English than others. For example, I'd call AusE standard. I would certainly reject some forms of Honk Kong English, including the idea that 'How to pronounce 'X'?" is a sentence.
The more interested you are in language or linguistics, the more you need to discriminate between, say, South African English and Irish English. The idea that AusE is BrE, whereas AmE is not BrE is hard to argue for. American and Australian English have both evolved from a seeding of British. But we (Aussies) have never been to war with Britain (as the Americans have), and we haven't severed cultural ties with Britain as much as Americans have. But it's a sign of cultural cringe to believe that Australians still speak BrE - given that both forms have changed significantly. For example, there is almost no Jamaican or Nigerian influence on AusE, whereas I'm sure there is (or will come to be) in BrE.

As for which Americanisms are normalised in AusE, maybe a good example is the use of nouns as verbs, eg. 'impact'. You'll see notes like the following in dictionaries:
"Impact, v [with object] chiefly North American Come into forcible contact with: an asteroid impacted the earth some 60 million years ago"
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/impact
Just think of the vocabulary of schools. What we used to call 'subjects' are now 'courses', courses are 'programs', and the rest.

 

[MikeNewYork]

As someone who uses BrE only, this word irks me.

As far as I know AmE acquired "gotten" from BrE.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

That's true, and then we stopped using it centuries ago.

It survives in some parts of England in local dialects but the only time I ever pronounce the word is in the expression, "ill-gotten gains".

 

[MikeNewYork]

That works for you. "Gotten" works for us. So be it.