Re: is "very" an adverb?


"Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote ...

> John Atkinson wrote:
>>
>> "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
>> > Greg Lee wrote:
>> >
>> >> Personally, I find the following
>> >> ambiguous: "Hopefully I glanced at the clock to see whether it
>> >> was time to leave." (1) I hope that I did glance at the clock.
>> >> (2) I was hoping that it was time to leave.
>> >
>> > (1) seems a rather unlikely interpretation -- one normally knows
>> > whether
>> > one did this or that voluntary action.
>>
>> But it's not exactly unknown to forget whether or not one did something.
>> Haven't you ever said, the morning after you arrived at your holiday
>> destination: "I sure hope I turned off the gas before we left."?
>
> But you can't use hopefully1 there

I reckon I can.

>-- you'd get "I hopefully turned the
> gas off before we left," meaning I was hoping the typical explosion
> wouldn't occur, not meaning "I hope I remembered to turn the gas off."

I'd certainly interpret "Hopefully I turned the gas off" as meaning "I hope
I remembered ...". Arguably, though, it might be better with a comma after
"Hopefully" -- as is equally the case in Greg's sentence with meaning (1).

("I hopefully turned ..." -- with "hopefully" neither first or last in the
sentence -- does of course imply "I was feeling hopeful when I turned it
offl", as you say.)

John.


.

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