hopefully

[Joel S. Berson]

At 4/4/2012 08:40 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>Which, curiously enough, neither that professor nor anyone else
>would likely have used that sentence to express, anymore that they
>would say "Happily, the sun is shining" to mean that the sun is
>happy about shining.  "Hopefully" is a sentence adverb in such
>contexts and has been used as such for decades--while also being a
>manner adverb in "The dog is sitting hopefully by her food
>dish".  (Not arguing with Lisa here, but with her long-ago professor
>and my fellow Usage Panelists who vote with the majority to condemn
>this perfectly ordinary and proper usage.)

Somehow this sun reminds me of Gladly the cross-eyed bear.

Joel


>LH
>
>On Apr 4, 2012, at 8:14 PM, Lisa Galvin wrote:
>
> > Or, that the sun, filled with hope, will rise.
> >
> > Or something.
> >
> > Lisa Galvin
> > Seattle
> >
> > On Apr 4, 2012, at 5:09 PM, Lisa Galvin <lisagal23 at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Lisa Galvin <lisagal23 at HOTMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject:      Re: hopefully
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> I don't know about replacing "hopefully" with one word, but I
> had a professor long ago that would have said the proper usage in
> this sentence would be "I hope" rather than "hopefully".
> >>
> >> To say hopefully the sun will rise tomorrow is (according to
> this interpretation) to say that the sun itself is full of hope
> that it will rise tomorrow.
> >>
> >> Lisa Galvin
> >> Seattle
> >>
> >> On Apr 4, 2012, at 4:21 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> >>
> >>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> >>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> >>> Subject:      Re: hopefully
> >>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> On Apr 4, 2012, at 6:59 PM, Dan Nussbaum wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> In the sentence, "Hopefully, the sun will rise tomorrow" the
> word hopefully is being used incorrectly. What word should be used?
> >>>>
> >>> To elaborate a bit, the usage claim in the first sentence is
> incorrect; there's nothing incorrect about the use of "Hopefully"
> in the example.  Unless, of course, the speaker/writer would prefer
> that the sun not rise tomorrow but is convinced this wish will not
> be satisfied, in which case "Hopefully" would be the wrong word
> choice, and perhaps "Unfortunately" could be used instead.
> >>>
> >>> LH
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >>>
> >>
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> >>
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