Who'd a thunk it?

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:44 PM -0400 7/1/05, sagehen wrote:
>  >Peter  writes:
>>Yeah, but I don't think any of those is a true substitute for "hopefully."
>>When I say "hopefully" (which I always tried not to if my parents were
>>within earshot), I don't mean I, we or anybody else specifically hopes.
>>
>>Also, "it is hoped" may be  the same number of syllables as "hopefully,"
>>but it's three words, or four if you add the "that" that you need if you
>>want to attach it to another clause.*
>~~~~~~~
>*I did spot this weakness in my protest after I sent the squawk.
>
>As for the first point, it does seem to me that saying "hopefully" in order
>to spread the blame around a bit is a lot like choosing a passive
>construction to avoid  coming right out with a forthright statement.  It
>has a kind of mealy-mouthed quality.
>
Do you also avoid "certainly", "probably", "regretfully",
"fortunately", "apparently", "evidently","luckily", "sadly",
"happily", and other sentence adverbs which similarly deflect the
role of the assessor?   Giving these up in favor of "I am certain",
"I think", "I regret", "it seems to me", etc. trades the
"mealy-mouthed" adverbs in for egocentric parentheticals...

L