10. Starting a sentence with “hopefully”: This is a pet peeve for a lot of folks who feel that vernacular speech is somehow destroying language. There are people who insist that “hopefully” has one meaning and one meaning only: “in a hopeful manner.” They argue that, in the sentence, “Hopefully, Lauren will stop this inane grammar lesson soon,” that “Lauren” would be stopping “in a hopeful manner.” These folks want to replace our sentence-starting “hopefully” with phrases like “let us hope” or “it is hoped.”
O’Conner writes, “It’s time to admit that hopefully has joined the class of introductory words (life fortunately, frankly, happily, honestly, sadly, seriously, and others) that we use not to describe a verb, which is what adverbs usually do, but to describe our attitude toward the statement that follows.” These words are known as sentence adverbs, modifying the whole sentence rather than just a verb, adjective, or fellow adverb. In 2012, the Associate Press changed its style guidelines to allow writers to start a sentence with “hopefully” to mean “I am hopeful that something will happen.” Hopefully, the sticklers will come around.
Bonus gray area: saying “I could care less.” There are many people who cheered when, on Orange is the New Black, Flaca chewed out Lorna for saying “I could care less” instead of “I couldn’t care less.”
The discussion between Flaca and Piper highlights the differences between prescriptivism (Flaca) and descriptivism (Piper). Now, a lot of folks will roll their eyes at the notion of grammatical descriptivism, saying that’s how we end up with words like “irregardless.” But there’s actually a lot of room for discussion when it comes to “I could care less.”
I confess, I’ve always been a bit perplexed by the ire that “I could care less” attracts. I was raised in “I couldn’t care less” country, but whenever I hear “I could care less,” my brain automatically fills in the words “but not much.” But really, logic is beside the point.
There is no question that “I couldn’t care less” came before “I could care less”; the former was likely invented in Britain in the late 1930s and shows up in print in 1944. “I could care less” isn’t exactly a newcomer to the scene, however. It’s an American phrase, one that pops up in print (in the Washington Post, no less) as early as 1955. No one is quite sure how “couldn’t” became “could,” but while some theorize that the “-n’t” was dropped due to sloppy pronunciation, others wonder if the American version of the phrase was meant to be sarcastic. Either way, “I could care less” has hung around for decades and it’s now classed in the Oxford English Dictionary as an “American colloquialism.” For some folks, it’s just another example of Americans mangling the mother tongue.
Bill Walsh’s essay on the phrase from his book Yes, I Could Care Less: How to Be a Language Snob Without Being a Jerk is the best discussion of the phrase I’ve seen, and shows just why “I could care less” sits in such a gray area. Walsh notes that while the haters of “I could care less” tend to argue that theirs is the more logical phrase, when in fact, “I couldn’t care less” is hyperbolic to begin with. He also notes that “I could care less” isn’t in danger of going anywhere. While prescriptivists will tell you to stick with “I couldn’t care less,” especially in formal writing, many will note that the idiom “I could care less” is perfectly fine in informal usage (as when commenting on message boards on the Internet). Logical or not, “I could care less” is on its way toward gaining acceptance as an idiom.As a side note, here’s the funny thing about “I couldn’t care less”: we’re actually not using the phrase as it was originally intended. According to Christine Ammer, author of The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, “I couldn’t care less” originally expressed “bored indifference” or bravado. So while some sticklers for “I couldn’t care less” believe they are working against changing the phrase, it’s a phrase that has gone through some changes already.
-I09.com
CLICK HERE to follow us on Google+ so as to get updates on published posts & videos
TOP POSTS YESTERDAY
- BBA HOTSHOTS !! Watch shower hour of the super hot Laveda and Samantha (Video)
- OMG! Woman Caught By Her Husband Doing It With Young Lover In A Hotel Room [See Photos]
- See How Alamieyeseigha’s Son was Killed in his House in Dubai
- Amber Rose Stylishly Flaunts Her Massive βυTT , displays Ex Husby Wiz Khalifa tattoo PHOTOS]
- Nu d£ pics of Nicki Minaj after having $£x leaked by hackers (Look)
- BBA HOTSHOTS : Mira & Luis caught “doing things” – [Video]
- Housewife Caught In Bed With Her Son In Delta State (LOOK)
- BBA HOTSHOTS ! Mira Goes Completely Gaga During Shower Hour of Day 5 [ VIDEO ] +18
- Mercy Johnson has given birth, gave birth to a…. (See Details)
- See what happened to Iyanya’s p£nis in public.. Wow! (Pics)
- BBA HOTSHOTS ! Watch Mira, Tayo & sheilah as they shower Together [ VIDEO ] +18
- #BBHotShots: Shower Hour [Day 8] – Ellah, Sheillah (18+) – [DOWNLOAD]
- BBA Hotshots ! Someone about to leak Nigerian housemate, Lilian nu d£ pics (Look)
- VIDEO & PHOTOS: Shower Hour of BBA Hotshots Ladies
- OMG!! Secondary school girl caught showing her BF her stuffs in class? (See Photo)
- BBA: First pictures from 2 crazy housemate who took off their clothes to get in spirit
- BBA HOTSHOTS! Watch Esther Twerking Alone during shower hour [ Video ] +18
- Maheeda At It Again!! Nigerian Men Beg To Sleep? – See What She Has For Us This Time [Look]
- BBA HOTSHOTS ! Evicted Housemate Mira Reveals Secret About Luis – See What She said [ LOOk ]
- Meet Jessica Vanessa The B00tilicious Lady Who Makes Millions Of Dollars From Posting Twerking Videos (Pics + Video)
Discussion about this post