The issue still isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t settled. It might never be. Hopefully, this column will enlighten some people and bring a few to my way of thinking. Notice I said \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hopefully.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
For years, language purists recoiled in horror over the misuse of words and phrases that the Miss Grundys of our youth would implore us to avoid.<\/p>\n
Let me explain:<\/p>\n
William Safire, a former columnist for the New York Times, shook up the language generation a few years back when he sided with the use of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hopefully\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in places where, to the rest of us, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t belong.<\/p>\n
For example, most language mavens cringe at the insertion of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hopefully\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when the writer or speaker means \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I hope.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a correct use of the word: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The boss said my pay envelope would be a little bulkier this week. I opened it hopefully but discovered the bulk was caused by the boss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 having included an 8×10 glossy photo of himself.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
David R. Williams, a writer of grammar and usage books, says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcHopefully\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 exists in that gray area between the snobs and the slobs. According to the grammar purists, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchopefully\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is an adverb defining an action to be used only when an action is done with hope or in a hopeful manner.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
True, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hopefully\u00e2\u20ac\u009d used to mean, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153filled with hope.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Now, people also use it to mean \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I hope\u00e2\u20ac\u009d; the very staid clause, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is to be hoped,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d used only by librarians; and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153One would hope.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
My friend John Detterick forwarded me a New York Times column by Clyde Haberman. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s titled, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is This the End of Proper Grammar? Hopefully Not.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That kind of headline ironically points exactly to the issue of the use of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hopefully.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Haberman refers to the Associated Press Style Book, which he calls the bible of usage for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153multitudes of writers, editors and other species of word nerds.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The AP\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s change in policy? \u00e2\u20ac\u0153From now on, the A.P. Stylebook … 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 Haberman writes.<\/p>\n
In my own journalism classes I used to condone, though not encourage, the misuse of the word, but for different reasons. You see, some of the ancient green-eye-shade editors who eschewed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hopefully\u00e2\u20ac\u009d simply weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t of my generation.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Those old men need to come around and realize that language changes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Haberman writes, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and if people start using \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchopefully\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 when they mean \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcit is hoped,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 let them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
But now, especially in light of my birthday last Saturday, I have a faint suspicion that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve become one of those old fogies. Accordingly, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hopefully\u00e2\u20ac\u009d now rankles and that rankling took effect when I was still 72. Hopefully now that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m 73, the word will begin to mean less to me in the future.<\/p>\n
Many of us believed the misuse of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hopefully\u00e2\u20ac\u009d arose from the rule-breaking do-your-own-thing spirit of the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc60s and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc70s. I suspect, however, the phenomenon has been around much longer; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s simply our awareness of the usage that got our attention.<\/p>\n
Fred Shapiro, a Yale University professor of law, has located dozens of citations of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hopefully\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in periodicals dating back more than 90 years. He even found such usage in an 1851 source.<\/p>\n
Times can change. Can I? Hopefully.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
Related to the idea of adverbs modifying verbs, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also the use of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153badly\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in expressions like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I feel badly that my pay envelope is skinny.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Badly\u00e2\u20ac\u009d might suffice in a sentence like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Dallas Cowboys performed badly,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but when it comes to linking verbs that refer to the senses \u00e2\u20ac\u201d feeling, looking, smelling, tasting, etc. \u00e2\u20ac\u201d we simply feel bad, or things taste or smell bad, or people look bad. But never badly, even though the verb in the sentence makes us want to turn \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bad\u00e2\u20ac\u009d into \u00e2\u20ac\u0153badly.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
When people say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I feel badly,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we language cops immediately assume the speaker somehow has singed his or her fingers and the finger-feelers are in poor shape.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why do you keep driving around the block?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d my wife asked after the fourth time we circled our neighborhood at Camp Luna.<\/p>\n
That was last Saturday, the spring\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first totally pleasant day. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is it obvious?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I asked. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is only the first time around this block,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I said.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153No, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s four times,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she insisted.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I told Bonnie, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I thought I saw something no man has ever seen before?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What? A legal hit by the New Orleans Saints? \u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153No, what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never seen and what I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen, is a woman cooking burgers on a grill.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
So that was the reason for circling the block: Where and when there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s barbecue, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a man doing the honors, not a woman. Why is this so? My absolute conviction is that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a way of showing we still have mastery over nature; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard-wired into men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (not women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s) DNA.<\/p>\n
Remember back in caveman days when the women stayed home and had babies while men brought home the brontosaur brisket (or whatever else was in fashion)? The pre-historic barbecue grill was a sure way to prove man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mastery over the elements and much more. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why men do the barbecuing \u00e2\u20ac\u201d they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cook otherwise \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and some put on an apron, even if it makes them look sissified.<\/p>\n
Lest my brilliant idea rankle 1) women, 2) men, 3) anthropologists, 4) vegans, 5) cavemen, I welcome feedback on my totally conjectural, totally non-scientific opinion on why men grill.<\/p>\n
Hopefully, a reader or two will respond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The issue still isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t settled. It might never be. Hopefully, this column will enlighten some people and bring a few to my way of thinking. Notice I said \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hopefully.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d For years, language purists recoiled in horror over the misuse of words and phrases that the Miss Grundys of our youth would implore us to avoid. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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\/903"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":904,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions\/904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}