Grr. Missed "reply to all" again. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2002 16:49:25 -0400 From: Mark A Mandel <mam at theworld.com> To: magical truthsaying bastard roney! <rone at ennui.org> Subject: Re: OT: Subjectivity vs. Objectivity (was: bois...) On Sat, 17 Aug 2002, magical truthsaying bastard roney! wrote: #Mark A Mandel writes: # But I disagree. "Hopefully, X is the case" is not the same as "I hope X # is the case". As AHD4's Usage Note observes, you can follow the latter, # but not the former, with "but probably not". # #Use "with any luck," instead. You may feel comfortable equating them. I don't feel the same about the phrases, nor about "God willing", though I use all three of them with, I suppose, similar semantic values. Hmm, why not?... "With any luck" emphasizes a random or uncontrolled aspect of the situation, the risks. "Hopefully" focuses on the positive side: half full, rather than half empty. And "God willing" has religious aspects, of course. The choice of which of these to use is significant. -- Mark A. Mandel