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firmly informed that, whereas the past participle of the
verb to get is, in American use, sometimes got and
sometimes gotten, they represent different shades of
meaning and are not interchangeable. Gotten is used
where an Englishman would employ a different parti-
ciple - such as acquired or became. "She's gotten
used to it"; "The situation has gotten serious"; "He's
gotten his wife a necklace" - are all quite normal
locutions at home. But (p. 61) he's gotten the patience
of Job . . . And he's gotten humouous too," implies to an
American either that the British working-man has more
[orders ?] recently acquired those admirable characteristics, than
that they are natural to him, which is, I think, the
author's meaning.
Got is constantly used in America, where an Englishman
might perhaps omit it entirely. In the following examples
-- (p.251) "I've gotten a heap of things to say to say";
(pp. 263-4) "You English have gotten business men on the
brain"; (p. 345) "I reckon you've gotten a strong hand, [Grof ?]";
(p. 346) "I've gotten something to say to you" ------ an
American would use got in place of gotten; whereas an
Englishman would very likely dispense altogether with the