"I've got to get a flu shot."
I must acquire a flu shot.
Seems simple to understand. However, if I actually said, "I must acquire a flu shot," my language would sound stilted once I add "...acquire a flu shot." The verb 'to get' with all its various definitions indicates that context is all, and that someone fluent in English would superimpose context automatically over usage. What is very interesting about your question is how easily we do use the verb 'to get' with immediate understanding of context with no confusion about how the verb is being used. What a marvel is the human brain to be able to make these automatic applications of the verb 'to get' without filing through various definitions or understandings in our brains to know which definition is being used. Or, even worse, that we have no need to pull out a dictionary to figure out which definition for 'to get' applies to some sentence we're hearing. The verb 'to get' is used so commonly and so often that our experience with the language guides us in understanding meaning without ever having to pick up the dictionary, yet when we do so, as you have done, how very interesting to see that one simple word has so many different, specific applications--and how, in so many different instances, should we use a different word, the sentence ends up sounding stilted, as in "I must acquire a flu shot."
I think when Maverick wrote, "terminology...merely describes a fact of our linguistic practice," he hit the nail on the head.
