The get-passive
The get-passive is used much more in speech than in writing and has an informal flavor, the reverse of the be-passive. Here are some examples from conversation:
Poor fellow, he got knocked down in a road accident.
She got bitten by a new bug of some sort in France.
I got attacked by a fan at a football match.
He got promoted, the lucky devil!
The get-passive grammaticalizes affective meaning, and so potentially reflects speakers’ involvement, whereas the be-passive is more objective. The use of the get-passive is therefore an option. Speakers’ interest centres on the get-passive subject and what happens to it, while with the be-passive interest centres on the event. Involvement of the subject referent is also implied by the get-passive, in that the subject is partly responsible for the significant result, whether this is beneficial or adverse. The be-passive, by contrast, is neutral. Compare:
a She got (herself) promoted. b She was promoted.
a I got stung by a wasp. b I was stung by a wasp.
The action undergone by the subject of the get-passive is more often adverse than beneficial. In fact, all the adverse and violent things that can happen to a person or thing are expressible by the get-passive: get arrested, abused, fined, fired, beaten up, burgled, kidnapped, killed, mugged, sacked, shot, vandalized and many more. The subject referent is either unlucky or has made an error of judgement (being at the wrong place at the wrong time) when bad events are described. On happier occasions, such as getting invited or promoted, there is often an implication that the subject referent has contrived to be promoted, invited and so on, or was lucky, being at the right place at the right time. Here is another extract from Hawking’s Black Holes and Baby Universes, with an example of each type of passive. He is discussing the idea that:
if one could pass through a black hole, one might re-emerge anywhere in the universe. Quite how to choose your destination is not clear: you might set out for a holiday in Virgo and end up in the Crab Nebula.
I’m sorry to disappoint prospective galactic tourists, but this scenario doesn’t work: if you jump into a black hole, you will get torn apart and crushed out of existence. However, there is a sense in which the particles that make up your body will carry on into another universe. I don’t know if it would be much consolation to someone being made into spaghetti in a black hole to know that his particles might survive.
