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Can "get" be used as a verb of perception? If it is not a verb of perception, what is the meaning of the usage below?

  1. We got you coming into Vegas for two days when she died. ( Detectives say this to a suspect because the detectives have evidence)

and

  1. I got 2 guys on motorbikes coming your way. ( A group of soldiers about to start a operation and the lookout saying this to the rest of the group)
virolino
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Talha Özden
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1 Answers1

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Yes, it can be used to reflect perception, but I'm not sure it counts as a verb of perception. What it's actually doing is using the sense of get to mean obtain, and could be replaced with appropriate forms of have. What the first example means is that they have constructed a timeline based on evidence, or a picture of events based on evidence, and on that evidence base they have the person coming into Vegas for two days.

In both cases, you can think of it as obtaining (or possession of) the information that is represented by the object.

Actually, in formal standard grammar, you want have in front of both instances of got, but that's often dropped in informal speech - especially in American English. That's because they are referring to presently having the information they describe.

SamBC
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