Bill Bryson, author of the recent best-seller "A Short History of Nearly Everything", in one of his books says:
We must never use hopefully in an absolute sense, such as "Hopefully it will not rain tomorrow".
After having read that assertion many times, I'm still not able to understand what Bill Bryson means.
Precisely, what does absolute sense mean in that statement and in reference to hopefully?
Is hopefully correctly used in "Hopefully it will not rain tomorrow"? If not, why? Can anybody shed a bit of light to clarify what Bill Bryson says?
Best Answer
This is not an answer in terms of grammar as such, but I'm writing this hopefully to shed a different light on the issue.
Hopefully, of course, literally means "full of hope". Edwin says It is short for the comment clause 'It is to be hoped that' (...). (which I don't disagree with). But I tend to think of it as short for "I (or we) hope that" - but the sentence does not make any reference (actual or otherwise implied) to me/us. For that reason, I tend to think of it as strictly ungrammatical. (That's not to say that I don't use or understand it! - nor that I'm correct?!)
On the other hand, in my introductory sentence, I'm saying that "I'm writing this in the hope that (or full of hope that or while hoping that) it will shed a different light on the issue." It's clear that it's me doing the hoping.
As an aside, Mynamite says that he is sure "that there is no native speaker who does not understand" what it means - and I agree with him - but that doesn't make it acceptable or correct. I'm sure we would all understand what "I ain't got no money" means - but nevertheless, it's still not correct or 'acceptable' English.