Get To Know
Geoffrey Pullum says that the sentence:* If you don't know her, get to.
seems ungrammatical to him, but he doesn't know why.
I would suggest it's because "get to know" has an idiomatic meaning which is a bit different from the generic use of "get to [verb]." The idiomatic meaning suggests a gradual process of acquaintance, the generic meaning emphasizes a special opportunity to [verb].
"I get to know her over drinks," (idiomatic) means something different from "I get to know the password, because I have a security clearance." (non-idiomatic)
The asterisked sentence sounds strange because the listener wants to apply "get to..." in the generic way, but the speaker is using it in the idiomatic way.
posted by Richard Mason @ Friday, December 09, 2005
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