On Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 1:52 AM, Abhijit Menon-Sen <[email protected]> wrote:
> And here are some of mine: the use of "hopefully" to mean "I hope that"... That is an entirely legitimate use now: http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxhopefu.html And Mirriam-Webster defines it thus (and then explains it) [1]: 2 *:* it is hoped *:* I hope *:* we hope <*hopefully* the rain will end > soon> > > *usage* In the 1960s the second sense of *hopefully,* which dates to the > early 18th century and had been in fairly widespread use since at least the > 1930s, underwent a surge in popularity. A surge of criticism followed in > reaction, but the criticism took no account of the grammar of adverbs. * > Hopefully* in its second sense is a member of a class of adverbs known as > disjuncts. Disjuncts serve as a means by which the author or speaker can > comment directly to the reader or hearer usually on the content of the > sentence to which they are attached. Many other adverbs (as *interestingly, > frankly, clearly, luckily, unfortunately*) are similarly used; most are so > ordinary as to excite no comment or interest whatsoever. The second sense of > *hopefully* is entirely standard. > Dot Wordsworth, the Spectator columnist, had a wonderful piece in the Spectator a few years ago that explained this much more lucidly, but I can't locate his piece online. Still, hopefully the M-W explanation clarifies matters. ;) -- Amit Varma http://www.indiauncut.com
