The use of 'get' and 'got'

[Unregistered]

When I was in school during the sixties I was not allowed to use 'get', 'got' or any variation. It was classed as bad grammar and you would be marked down for it in exams. I was taught that it was a lazy way of talking or writing. For example, I have just read the following. 'I got engaged on the weekend'. This was written by a journalist so I assume it is acceptable. I was taught that the line should be 'I became engaged during the weekend'. Who is correct?
Vaughan Pitman

 

[David L.]

I have long since given up any romantic idea of journalists actually being literate, never mind wordsmiths. They perpetrate, via mass media, some of the most atrocious grammar and pronunciation.
When sexual harassment first came to prominence as an issue in the workplace, some TV reporter outside the courtroom, broadcast about this case of har-RASS-ment. It was picked up as a milestone case, other journalists parroted the pronunciation (obviously, not knowing any better themselves); it went round the world, people heard it reported on TV and radio, and as an issue, was widely discussed. Lo and behold, it spreads like the flu, and so now it seems virtually everyone has parroted the reporter. Now, as one dictionary says:
Traditionally, the word harassment has been pronounced with stress on the first syllable, as "HAR-uhsment." But the newer pronunciation that puts the stress on the second syllable is increasingly more widespread and is considered standard.
Other calamities are DIS-tribute and CON-tribute, both of which are like nails on a blackboard.
Even the pronunciation and grammar of the BBC cannot be relied on- I've heard a few doozies there.
PS You are correct

 

[Anglika]

The overuse of "got" is one of my pet peeves. It is a lazy way of using language. nfire: