J:

I've also wondered about these phrases, though never to the extent you have, and I have always felt there was something I'm missing. You are alos missing whatever that is.

But your post made me think some more about it, and I wonder if what we have here is a case of ellipsism.

Take, for example, the sentence, "I've got to get a haircut."

Is it posible that in its entirety the sentence reads something like this: "I've gotten the obligation to get a haircut"?

Similarly, you can make more sense out of "I've got a headache" by thinking of it as the more grammatically correct: "I've gotten a headache."

It's so nice to see a post qbout words!

TEd


TEd