respectively

[Neal Whitman]

I've heard "respectively" used without even the idea of "in that order"
available. The grocery store cashier said, "I put your fruits and vegetables
in those bags, respectively," without any accompanying deixis to put the
bags in a certain order.

Neal

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2010 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: respectively


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> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: respectively
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "They" say this on Fox and CNN all the time, and have for a long time.
>
> I noticed it because it made me wonder whether I knew what "respectively"
> meant. I even looked it up.
>
> SWAG: this is now the usual non-academic meaning of the word.
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 11:11 AM, Laurence Horn
> <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
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>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: respectively
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> 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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>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
>
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