respectively

[Laurence Horn]

At 8:55 AM -0600 10/4/10, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>  ... meaning "in the order given" (or, "in that order"):
>
>http://bit.ly/bDOhPp
>>While Milwaukee was ranked 11th poorest in 2008, the new data showed
>>the city's poverty level reached 27 percent as of 2009, trailing only
>>Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo, N.Y., respectively.
>
>The only conclusion I can reach from this statement is that Detroit,
>Cleveland and Buffalo are the first, second and third cities,
>respectively, in terms of highest poverty levels. But, in the sentence
>above, the three cities are not paired with anything explicit to earn
>the "respectively" label.
>
>VS-)
>
Agreed.  Presumably someone thought that since "respectively" sort of
means "in that order" in some contexts, it can replace "in that
order" in all contexts, including ones in which the pairing requires
unpacking what's implicit, as you do in your gloss.  Why use three
words when one word that means almost the same thing can be used?

LH

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