AP's approval of 'hopefully' symbolizes larger debate over language

Monica Hesse:

The barbarians have done it, finally infiltrated a remaining bastion of order in a linguistic wasteland. They had already taken the Oxford English Dictionary; they had stormed the gates of Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition. They had pummeled American Heritage into submission, though she fought valiantly -- she continues to fight! -- by including a cautionary italics phrase, "usage problem," next to the heretical definition.

Then, on Tuesday morning, the venerated AP Stylebook publicly affirmed (via tweet, no less) what it had already told the American Copy Editors Society: It, too, had succumbed. "We now support the modern usage of hopefully," the tweet said. "It is hoped, we hope."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at April 21, 2012 2:05 AM
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