Hopefully，一个貌似充满希望实则争议不断的词

ozxlu 网友说了，没有栗子，据不点赞！

您这么帅，我就努力回忆一个栗子出来吧... 

Hopefully这个单词，看起来充满希望，简直是正能量满满。用法也貌似简单，见下面的两个例句。简直太棒了！

等一下，为什么单词释义下面还有那么长的 Usage notes？！

原来，虽然有的（心思单纯、活泼开朗的）人就开开心心地用 hopefully 的两个用法造句，日子过得也很开心，另外有的（心思缜密、严肃较真的（看不得前面那些人开心的））人则认为，hopefully 的第二个词义和用法是某些语法学习薄弱的人强加给它的不可承受之重。按照这些语法大拿的见解，hopefully 的第二个词义和用法必须是由一个写作 hopeably 的词来承当，类似于 regretfully 和 regretably 这姐妹俩。

可是，大多数人都不用 hopeably 这个词或者（比如我）不知道有这么个词！

反正上完语法课，以后在电邮里写 "Hopefully, it will be sunny this weekend." 这类句子，估计我的心里都会充满了纠结。。。。。。

2018.8

 

下面是从 Wiktionary.org“借”来的：

++++++++

hopefully

Adverb[edit]

hopefully (comparative more hopefully, superlative most hopefully)

1. In a hopeful manner. [from 17th c.] quotations ▲
   • 1993, Alasdair Gray, ‘You’, Ten Tales Tall and True:

     ‘In fifteen minutes I will be at the carpark, sitting hopefully inside a puce Reliant Scimitar.’

2. It is hoped that; I hope; we hope. [from 18th c.]

   Hopefully, my father will arrive in time for the show.

Usage notes[edit]

The second definition (“I hope that”, used as a sentence adverb) has been criticized by some usage writers although it is by far the most commonly used sense of the word. Many adverbs are used as sentence modifiers with somewhat less frequent objection such as interestingly, frankly, clearly, luckily, and unfortunately. Unlike for many such shifts in meaning that occur in English, the portion of the American Heritage Dictionary's Usage Panel that condones the second sense of the word has decreased from 1969 to 2000, offering the explanation that this particular usage has become a shibboleth.^[1][2] Merriam-Webster, on the other hand, calls the usage "entirely standard", and notes that it has been used since the early 18th century, having been commonly used in American English since the 1930s, and gained significant popularity in the 1960s.^[3]

The dispute over the use of sentence adverbs is born largely of the fact that in using an existing adverb to apply to not only one verb but a whole sentence, the meaning of the word is altered, which, in certain situations, can lead to ambiguity. For example, Hopefully, he will save money for the deposit on a new house can mean either that it is hoped that he will save the money (in which hopefully is a sentence adverb modifying the entire sentence) or that he is saving money in a hopeful manner (in which hopefully modifies will save). Sentence adverbs have played a part in English since the 17C but have been limited largely to use wherein they retain their original definition (e.g. probably). It was not until the 20C that they began to be used in other situations.

“[T]here is no precise substitute,” says the American Heritage Dictionary. “Someone who says Hopefully, the treaty will be ratified makes a hopeful prediction about the fate of the treaty, whereas someone who says I hope (or We hope or It is hoped) the treaty will be ratified expresses a bald statement about what is desired. Only the latter could be continued with a clause such as but it isn’t likely.”^[1] Hopefully is also less personal than I hope or we hope. It is hoped that and if hopes are realized would be impersonal and have been suggested as alternatives to hopefully,^[4] but using hopefully is more concise.

Compare to the usage of regretfully, which does have the substitute regrettably. In fact, hopeably has been proposed as an alternative, but it has not caught on.