Dragaera

Hopefully - Found it! :)

Mark A Mandel mam at theworld.com
Sat Aug 17 07:40:35 PDT 2002

On Fri, 16 Aug 2002, Casey Rousseau wrote:

#Chris Olson quoted an example from Line by Line:
#> 'The candidates are hopefully awaiting the election results,'
#
#I would say that contrary to the statement from the text, this is exactly
#the sort of usage that has been made vague by the additional meaning of
#hopefully.  Either meaning works in this sentence, especially when spoken.
#
#The candidates are (hopefully) awaiting the election results. (as opposed to
#some other, less useful activity)
#The candidates are hopefully awaiting the election results. (in anticipation
#of their hoped-for results)

Yes, this one is ambiguous. It could have been disambiguated (ugly, ugly
word, but too useful for a linguist to throw away) with little change:

1. Hopefully, the candidates are awaiting the election results.
(sentence adverb)

2. The candidates are awaiting the election results hopefully. (simple
adverb)

Yes, #1 *can* be read as a simple adverb, but this construction --
sentence-initial, separated by a pause (comma) -- is the most typical
one for the sentence adverb and should be considered a signal of it.

-- Mark A. Mandel