Hopefully, thankfully, fortunately

[S.Meric]

I am a dinosaur who will go to my final tarpit resisting the use of
"hopefully" for "I hope" "one hopes" "it is hoped" -- you get the idea.
Also the sound of "thankfully" as in "thankfully, the dog did not get
run over", is like unto the sound of fingernails screeching/scratching
on a blackboard.

So why does "fortunately" come tripping off my tongue without
hesitation? As in "fortunately, I'm now out of prime time.."

Is there a basic difference between the first two and the last one?

S. Meric

[Ed Costello]

In article <3ik41u$c...@ixnews2.ix.netcom.com>, S.M...@ix.netcom.com
(S.Meric) wrote:

Substituting "Fortunately" with "It is [I am] fortunate [that]..." or
replacing "hopefully" with "I am hopeful [that] ..." or
replacing "thankfully" with "I am thankful [that] ..."

seems (to my ear) like it will work.

--
Ed Costello

[Keith Ivey]

: In article <3ik41u$c...@ixnews2.ix.netcom.com>, S.M...@ix.netcom.com
: (S.Meric) wrote:

: > I am a dinosaur who will go to my final tarpit resisting the use of
: > "hopefully" for "I hope" "one hopes" "it is hoped" -- you get the idea.
: > Also the sound of "thankfully" as in "thankfully, the dog did not get
: > run over", is like unto the sound of fingernails screeching/scratching
: > on a blackboard.
: >
: > So why does "fortunately" come tripping off my tongue without
: > hesitation? As in "fortunately, I'm now out of prime time.."
: >
: > Is there a basic difference between the first two and the last one?

Yes, there is a difference. Most sentence adverbs of the form
"___ly" can be replaced by "It is ___ that". For example,
"Fortunately" means "It is fortunate that" in your sentence.
Similarly with "regrettably", "luckily", "interestingly", and
many other adverbs.

"Hopefully" and "thankfully" do not follow this pattern.
Nevertheless, they've become popular because there is no simple
substitute for either (especially "hopefully"). "Regretfully"
is another "irregular" sentence adverb, but it has no excuse
for existing, since it has the same meaning as the regular
"regrettably".

Then there's "Frankly, my dear I don't give a damn."

--Keith Ivey <kci...@cpcug.org>
Washington, DC

[S.Meric]

In <3ilrch$n...@news1.digex.net> kci...@cpcug.digex.net (Keith Ivey)
writes:

Ahhhhhh! Thankfully, you have answered my question, and now, hopefully,
I will go forth to linguistic battle armed with the Gospel According to
St. Keith. It is fortunate that such as he roam the 'Net.

[Mary Sue Haliburton]

People are reacting against this use of adverbs because the words
in question do not appear to be related syntactically to the
sentence. However, the adverb is modifying the subject and verb
"understood". That is, the speaker is referring to the act of
opining in making the statement. (I say) hopefully, it will not
rain tomorrow. Usually for convenience the obvious is not stated,
i.e. "I am speaking" (or writing) does not need to be said. This
is why I have no particular objection to these hanging adverbs
in popular speech or writing. Of course their use should be
avoided in formal academic style, to avoid offending the tradi-
tionalists.

My 2-cents' worth.
MSH in Ottawa
--
For us it takes a thousand voices, a million angry shouts
To notify the ship of state to bring its course about...
James Keelaghan, song "Hold Your Ground", on My Skies album.

[Peter Schumacher]

>haye...@risc1.unisa.ac.za (Steve Hayes) writes:

>>The correct preposition to follow substitute is "for", as in "We substituted
>>margarine for butter", which is the same as saying that we replaced butter
>>by margarine.

And while we're at it, I think the construction "replace X _with_ Y" is
preferable to "X _by_ Y".
--

Peter Schumacher
pe...@statsci.com
--

Peter Schumacher
pe...@statsci.com