He and she got separated

[teleostomi]

"My father and mother were separated." Does this necessarrily mean that he and she are no longer living together but continuing the marital status? Or can it mean that he and she got divorced?

[Mister Micawber]

.
I would think they were not yet divorced; however, there is another subtle problem:

If they are alive, it would be are separated, expressing a condition. The action is the active verb: My parents separated in 1987 (they may or may not be dead now).

My father and mother were separated-- This sounds like (1) they since reunited or (2) they got lost from each other in a crowd.
.

[danmahaffey]

This is a footnote in response to your posting title, He and she got separated.

The idiom to get separated matches the idiom to become separated, which means to find oneself physically apart, and out of touch, perhaps lost.

Example, My sister and I took the train to the mall. When we arrived we got separated, and I haven't seen her for twenty minutes.

[teleostomi]

It's difficult to see which verb is a "state" verb or a "action" verb.
You mean "be separated" can't mean "get separated," right?
But other verbs can mean the same whether it's "be -pp" or "get -pp."

Dan, thanks for the footnote!
I think you mean it CAN mean that in addition to "begin to live apart from each other," right?

[danmahaffey]

If two people simply separate, without an agent's act, then to separate or to be separated are proper. If a formal separation agreement is put in place for example, perhaps with a court's approval, then you can use to get separated.

[teleostomi]

I honestly didn't know there's such distinction:eek:

[danmahaffey]

Among the umpteen definitions of get (count them! :)) is its use as a passive voice auxiliary verb, a role formally assigned to be.

For example, My dog was hit by a car can be written My dog got hit by a car. In the present tense you could say, I get moved to tears at weddings, for, I am moved to tears at weddings.

Get brings a stronger sense of agency to the passive voice--a sense of effort or result in the verb that be doesn't impart. (Because of semantics, get is not 100% equal to be in the passive voice in all situations. When it is not a good choice, you can quickly see that its use is clumsy or graceless.)

What I am working toward with all of this is that got separated (remember?) is a substitute for were separated, according to this analysis, and is especially a substitute for were separated by somebody or some effort.

So in an English speaker's mind, My parents got separated triggers two thoughts: (1) parents, therefore the likely definition of separated is not lost track of each other but living apart; and (2) got, therefore separated was done to them by someone.

I hope this exercise in "too much information" helps.