A funny thing is happening to some verbs in English. Verbs like get, forget, beget, and like prove and like burn and like wake, are acquiring two past participle forms instead of the usual one. That is to say, individual native speakers of English are using both of two forms, not the one that’s typical of a generation or a geographical area, but each one of the two—with a slight difference in meaning.
Prior to about 1970, English teachers who noticed things like this were expected to attach themselves to an opinion that one pattern of usage was “right” and the other was “wrong,” based on prejudice and snobbery. (Often the prejudice and snobbery were blatant. Sometimes they were based on “insider” understandings that the choice, usage, or pronunciation of a word had become a shibboleth—a subtle identifier of which side the speaker was on; for example, people who say “Seventh-Day Ad-VEN-tists” usually don’t belong to that church, and people who say “Appa-LAY-chia” usually don’t live there. Church members in good standing are AD-ventists and residents of the mining town live in Appa-LATCH-ia.) Since the mid-twentieth century there’s been a growing feeling that English teachers’ comments should be “more descriptive than prescriptive.” Today’s audience are now presumably asking, “So who’s using these verbs in this way, where, when, and why?”
I don’t have a full-sized linguistic study for you. Sorry. I’ve seen some studies of “get” and “prove” usage, but they tended to be on the prescriptive side. However, I invite readers to take a quick informal poll. If you choose to share where you live, where you grew up, where you went to college/university, and in which decade you were born, that will help linguists who may want to do full-sized studies. If you live in a small town and want to be private, feel free to identify your home county rather than town. For each numbered sentence below, pick the verb form that feels right to you.
What about people learning English as a foreign language? What should they do? Probably they should learn the forms their teachers and classmates use, since those will at least be the choices of reasonably educated native speakers in the part of the English-speaking world where they are.
I’ve (got, gotten) to go to the bank this afternoon.
He had (got, gotten) half of the baby tomato plants in place when the storm hit.
So far I’ve (got, gotten) 19 of the 25 plants I ordered from the nursery.
The father said, “I have (got, gotten) a son.”
The mother said, “I have (got, gotten) a son, two years old.”
I’ve (got, gotten) a headache.
Have you (got, gotten) a pain?
Have you (got, gotten) a hammer?
He’s (got, gotten) a pair of boots like the ones we saw at the mall.
She’s (got, gotten) a tough job ahead of her.
A jar stood (forgot, forgotten) on the counter.
She’d (forgot, forgotten) the name of her fifth grade teacher.
The antique store suggests vague memories of times long (forgot, forgotten).
This day will never be (forgot, forgotten).
Studies have (proved, proven) that glyphosate can promote the formation and growth of cancer.
Darwin’s theory of evolution cannot be (proved, proven) by scientific methods.
He has a (proved, proven) record of success in debugging computers.
She had (proved, proven) herself as a web site builder.
The Olympic team are all (proved, proven) athletes.
We’ve (burned, burnt) all the hedge trimmings.
The other organization had (burned, burnt) the fundraisers’ turf.
When the company’s “updates” destroyed half of my smartphone’s apps, did I ever feel (burned, burnt)!
I’m not buying another smartphone: once (burned, burnt) twice shy.
The wildfire had (burned, burnt) the entire city block.
Often he’d (awakened, waked, woke, woken) up at night when the train passed.
She was (awakened, waked, woke, woken) by the hotel’s automatic wake-up call service.
His feminist consciousness was (awakened, waked, woke, woken) when his wife moved out.
Some editors want to show that they’re (awakened, waked, woke, woken) to the complaints of these groups.
The students’ sense of poetry had been (awakened, waked, woke, woken) as they studied Millay and Benet.
Did I ever ask to be (awakened, waked, woke, woken)?
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