At 07:25 PM 8/15/2002 +0100, Mike Scott wrote: > The change has > > pretty much happened, but I cannot imagine how it could be construed > > as improving the language. > >Sure it could. There is clearly a linguistic niche for a gerundive >meaning "it is to be hoped". Why? That is, what does "it is to be hoped" mean? It is to be hoped by *whom*? By persons unknown? Why say that? By you? Then say, "I hope." By me? Then say, "You should hope." By all right-thinking people? Then say that. Why this insistence on vagueness? In fact, "hopefully" in its vague use developed from the German word that sounds like it but that I can't possibly spell--something like huffentlich. I asked my father (German lit. professor) what that word meant, and he said, with no hesitation, "I hope."