All Right, Already

Do you have to be sixty-something to be jarred by the increasingly frequent appearance of "alright" in writing? Maybe I'm one of a dwindling few still clutching a Perrin-Smith handbook and inwardly screaming, "WRONG! WRONG!" (Actually, I'm trying to learn to inwardly intone, "Nonstandard. Nonstandard.") My favorite dictionary calls the single-word version a "disputed variant" of the two-word original. If you Google the topic of "all right" versus "alright," you'll find that many think the latter is perfectly acceptable. It was a comfort to me to read that Bartleby suggests that writers who relax the standard incur the risk of begin considered incorrect (http://www.bartleby.com/64/C003/023.html). I understand that language is a tool, and eventually is shaped by common usage, but I'm unwilling to see us accept change too quickly and easily.

Now that I've hauled myself up onto this soapbox, let me bring up another pet peeve--the altered usage of such words as "hopefully," "thankfully" and "sadly." We all learned the rules for using words like this. They modify a verb, and, because these particular words connote emotion, there needs to be a subject capable of feeling or showing emotion. "Bowser looked hopefully at the piece of steak dangling from my fork. He wagged his tail thankfully as I let it fall to the floor in front of him and sighed sadly when he realized there would be no more treats that night."

Suddenly common usage allows us to say, "Hopefully, the sun will shine on our picnic. Thankfully, it didn't rain during the parade. Sadly, thunder showers are predicted for evening, when the fireworks are scheduled." This just has to be wro--nonstandard.

All right, I'll climb down now before I fall. Thanks for letting me sound off. As you know, I'm happy to return the favor; just jot a comment and you're in.

Perky