No, this is not a repeated column. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a summer (or early fall) rerun; however, you might recall I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve asked the question before and touched on the subject: When we suddenly become aware of word or combination of words, is its usage new, or did we just now become aware of it?<\/p>\n
During political seasons, we overdose on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153convoluted,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d usually in the context of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The provisions of Obamacare are too frigging convoluted.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d They mean, I surmise, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153confusing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but the meaning of convoluted comes closer to intricate, repetitious.<\/p>\n
And the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153conflate,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to mix, blend, combine, usually arguments and issues, gets plenty of play by the fine folks in Washington, who brought us the Shutdown.<\/p>\n
As a grammar purist, I can overlook conflate and convolute; I still struggle with the pass that the incorrect use of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hopefully\u00e2\u20ac\u009d received into the once-pristine English language. The word\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been around forever, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obviously one of those that make us wonder whether it suddenly emerged and we all began to use it.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hopefully\u00e2\u20ac\u009d means simply, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153in a hopeful manner\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153filled with hope.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But a few decades ago, it came to mean \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I hope.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d For example, each payday, I look at my Optic paycheck hopefully; that is, I hope the boss will decide to bump me up to minimum wage.<\/p>\n
But butchers of the language will say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hopefully, I will get a raise.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sorry, but \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hopefully,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in this context, simply doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cut it.<\/p>\n
There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a journalists\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 bible called The Associated Press Stylebook, required reference in every newsroom. Otherwise reasonable, fair-minded newspeople lose all sense of humor, decorum and diplomacy when it comes to the AP Stylebook. The stylebook rules, and from that there must be no variation.<\/p>\n
I might ask the boss, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is it Mass or mass?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do we use an Oxford comma?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nCheck the stylebook!<\/p>\n
Is it lunacy that drove AP editors only recently to accept the weird use of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hopefully\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? One press release from a member of the AP editorial board asserted, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Today, the AP Stylebook has set America on a course toward ruin.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It goes on, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hopefully, you will appreciate this style update. . . . We now support the modern usage of hopefully; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hoped, we hope.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Another writer labeled it as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a travesty. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcHopefully\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 should mean only \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcin a hopeful manner,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 e.g., \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI waited for the announcement hopefully.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
A different press release put it this way: From now on, the AP Stylebook a bible of usage for multitudes of writers, editors and other species of word nerds, will recognize the legitimacy of the adverb \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchopefully\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 as it is heard in everyday language, even if it makes a grammar stickler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s back teeth ache.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The same writer added, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Undoubtedly, Miss Grundy cautioned you in the seventh grade that you must never write a sentence like this: Hopefully, the game will not be canceled. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Uh-uh,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Miss Grundy would say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153never use that pesky adverb in so lax a manner. Proper English,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d insist, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153requires rendering the sentence like so: \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcHe said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hopefully that the game would not be canceled.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u02dc\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/p>\n
And a writer, Monica Hesse, weighed in: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The barbarians have done it, finally infiltrated a remaining bastion of order in a linguistic wasteland. The venerated AP Stylebook publicly affirmed, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWe now support the modern usage of hopefully,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the tweet said.<\/p>\n
When I become passionate about a bit of usage, some people tell me to calm down, to adjust to modern times. I can accept that, but how far should that acceptance go? Will the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pronunciation\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ever sound correct after we hear it pronounced \u00e2\u20ac\u0153proNOUNciation, as we do on radio? And will \u00e2\u20ac\u0153gonna\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153gotta\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ever be palatable, even though that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how many people pronounce them?<\/p>\n
In my communication, generally, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a bit more formal when writing.
\nReluctantly, I will \u00e2\u20ac\u0153go by the book\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hopefully\u00e2\u20ac\u009d appears as a speed bump in people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s prose. Hopefully, I will learn to adjust.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
And on the subject of meaning . . . For years I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been fascinated by vast number of words that describe people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fears. We know that hydrophobia is an irrational fear of water; acrophobia is a fear of heights, and claustrophobia is a fear of closed up spaces.<\/p>\n
Some dictionaries contain lists of hundreds of phobic words. My favorite is triskaidekaphobia, which somehow embeds 10-and-3-equals-13 to represent the morbid fear of the number 13, or, in essence, superstition. Notice how many big-city elevators skip from floor 12 to 14.<\/p>\n
In a very recent discussion with a journalism professor, who teaches at Northern Arizona University, he referred to me (politely) as a homophobe, apparently based on an opinion I expressed about same-sex marriages.<\/p>\n
I wondered: If a phobe or phobic is someone who fears something, does that mean I fear gays and lesbians? I most certainly do not.<\/p>\n
I looked up a more precise definition of a phobic person and discovered that such a person has a fear or strong dislike of whatever is specified. My Arizona friend said that he too had been under the impression that a homophobe feared gays and lesbians.<\/p>\n
Neither of us had bothered to dig deeply enough into Merriam-Webster to learn the fuller definition. We both learned something \u00e2\u20ac\u201d even at our advanced ages. Neither of us hates or fears, regardless.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
Will literate people ever fail to wince after hearing a succession of the words \u00e2\u20ac\u0153actually\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153literally\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? My observation has been that many people pepper their speech with these words, without regard to their meanings.<\/p>\n
Hmmm. I see a column on this topic in the making.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No, this is not a repeated column. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a summer (or early fall) rerun; however, you might recall I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve asked the question before and touched on the subject: When we suddenly become aware of word or combination of words, is its usage new, or did we just now become aware of it? During political […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1136,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135\/revisions\/1136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}