LL-L: "Etymology" (was "Grammar") LOWLANDS-L, 25.FEB.2000 (02) [E]

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From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Grammar

Ed Alexander wrote:

>It would seem that the word <get> descends from the IE root GHED, and has
Germanic relatives in "forget", "vergessen", "beget", and "guess" (somehow
originally "take aim") among others, and on the Latin side "pre-hendere"
"prendre", "comprehend", "prize", "surprise", etc. etc.<

According to Chambers Dictionary of Etymology not all linguists agree that
there is a connexion between "get" and Latin "-hendere", etc.

>How is it that English uses the word <get> while in Frisian it's <krije> or
HG <kriegen> (speaking of overused words!).<

Part of the answer is that "get" was borrowed from Scandinavian in about
1200. NHG "kriegen" and Du. "krijgen" derive from the older meaning of the
verb - "to make war".

>Eldo Neufeld wrote:

>>re: "to get to (verb)" under recent discussion, in the sense of permission
>>or privilege, I always get perturbed when I hear the use of another tense
>>of the verb "to get," as, for example, in the following:
>>
>>                "we've got to do something"
>>                "something's got to be done"
>>                "I gotta go"

>Not to be perturbed, once you analyze it:

>[I have got (gotten)] [to do something (the task of doing something)] or [I
have received the job of doing something]<

It seems to me that we actually have "I have got" taking the place of "I
have" in the sense of possession and then also being substituted for it in
the phrase "I have to" = "I must". The usages "Something has to be done" and
"Something's got to be done" fit into this pattern. This mechanism seems to
be less cumbersome.

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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