A number of Guardian readers have been quite exercised by the use of the word gotten in a recent article by Martin Kettle, as in King Charles has so far “gotten away with it”. According to a piece in today’s issue by Elisabeth Ribbans, the paper’s ‘global readers’ editor’, they were also concerned about “normalcy”, “airplane” and “hot flash”. Apparently, it’s all to do with “Americanisms”, you see. You say defense, I say defence. You say harbor, I say harbour. You say favorite and I say favourite. I would be the first to be mildly critical of American misspellings, but are they really misspellings and does it really matter?
I have enough trouble working out what’s what with the English language at the best of times. For reasons I am only now being able to understand, the intricacies of grammar and spelling always left me behind. To this day, I don’t understand what verbs, adverbs, adjectives and nouns are. I obviously use them in everyday writing, but ask me to explain what they mean and you will be waiting a very long time. Spelling, I am very good at and I don’t know why. Everything went in one year and out the other when I was at school, but for some reason spelling always came easy. I was able to distinguish between effect and affect at an early age for no other reason that I seemed to know instinctively which one to use.
For all I know, the grammar may be deeply flawed in this blog. I cannot help that because, like everything else in my life, learning is incredible difficult. There is no need to point out the errors because I will not learn the lessons, in the same way that I never learned the grammar in the first place. I learned to write by a sense of what could be described as “feel”. If something feels and, usually, looks right, then hopefully it is right. If not, it’s the best I can do.
I used to fret about my complete lack of understanding when it comes to the English language, to the extent that I barely wrote anything at all for years. It was only when I adopted a “sod it, this will have to do” attitude and accepted my limitations that I was able to write to my heart’s content. So far, I appear to have “gotten away with it”.
There is a very powerful argument that operates along the lines that writing should adhere to certain rules of grammar, structure and spelling, otherwise what’s the point of a language in the first place? I get that. I can’t stand it when someone says or writes “could of” instead of “could have”, but maybe I shouldn’t fret about that, either? Like when I cock up my own use of grammar because I don’t really understand it, why be overcritical of those who those who don’t understand basic spelling? After all, I still know what someone means when they say “could of”.
And sometimes it is not necessarily about the words actually used but the way in which they are spoken and presented. For instance, the former deputy prime minister, the late and in my view great, John Prescott mangled the English language almost to the point of destruction, but you always knew what he meant. His formidable and largely underestimated intelligence usually saw to that. If you are able to still say what you mean, isn’t that enough?
Got and gotten are two words among many that I have to think about when I am writing, so Ms Ribbans’ article does resonate. I do not spend a great deal of time in deciding which to use. If it feels right, do it.
If, my loyal reader, you find fault with the technical aspects of my writing, then you are certainly onto something. Sadly, those flaws will never go and could get even more obvious and pronounced as the years go by. But I’ll always give you the best I’ve got. Or is it gotten?
