happiest day of your life? Options

[koichiro]

Hello.

In the TV drama "HEROS 3," I heard the following:

"But, this is supposed to be the happiest day of your life, isn't it?"

Is there any change in meaning if I replace "of" with "in" or "within" in this case?
If there is, would you let me know the difference?

One more:

Is there any difference between the following two?

1. It's alright.
2. It's all right.


Thank you very much in advance for your help on these.

koichiro

[Tinker Grey]

Hello.

In the TV drama "HEROS 3," I heard the following:

"But, this is supposed to be the happiest day of your life, isn't it?"

Is there any change in meaning if I replace "of" with "in" or "within" in this case?
If there is, would you let me know the difference?

One more:

Is there any difference between the following two?

1. It's alright.
2. It's all right.


Thank you very much in advance for your help on these.

koichiro

"Happiest day of your life" is a stock phrase. I find it difficult to imagine any one saying anything else. That said, I think I could concoct some minute differences in the meanings if I had to. Nevertheless, they would all reduce to the same meaning: This day is [supposed to be/meant to be/is] the happiest of your life.

Note too that this phrase isn't meant to be literal. Any number of days in one's life might be described as "happiest" even though by definition there can be only one.

I let someone else deal with "alright".

HTH

[wonderwhy]

Hello.


One more:

Is there any difference between the following two?

1. It's alright.
2. It's all right.


Thank you very much in advance for your help on these.

koichiro

==============
M-W:

all right

usage The one-word spelling alright appeared some 75 years after all right itself had reappeared from a 400-year-long absence. Since the early 20th century some critics have insisted alright is wrong, but it has its defenders and its users. It is less frequent than all right but remains in common use especially in journalistic and business publications. It is quite common in fictional dialogue, and is used occasionally in other writing <the first two years of medical school were alright — Gertrude Stein>.
======================

Results 1 - 10 of about 40,600,000 English pages for "alright"

Results 1 - 10 of about 81,000,000 English pages for "all right"

[Freond]

Regarding your first question, "in" or "within" would probably never be used in this situation, and would not be natural, so I won't comment on "difference in meanings." Such a use of "of" with a period of time is common:

This is the first day of the rest of your life.
Monday is the first day of the work week.
June is the sixth month of the year.
Call me the first of next week.

Regarding "alright" and "all right," there is no difference in meaning, but there's a lot to say about the spellings. Merriam Webster is a bit more liberal than other dictionaries, or at least less willing to be judgmental. The American Heritage Dictionary is more conservative and considered by some to be more "authoritative." AHD is more willing to label something as "substandard." If you are looking for a more formal standard, AHD is a probably a better source than MW. But as you know, dictionaries are becoming less willing to make such judgments. My standards probably lean toward the liberal side, but it depends on the word or usage. For this one, I'm with AHD. I consider "alright" to be a misspelling and would never use in, it formal or informal situations. Here's AHD's entry and the usage note, which gives some history of the al- prefix as used here and on some other words:


al·right
adv. Nonstandard
All right. See Usage Note at all right.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
.
.
.
Usage Note: Despite the appearance of the form alright in works of such well-known writers as Langston Hughes and James Joyce, the single word spelling has never been accepted as standard. This is peculiar, since similar fusions such as already and altogether have never raised any objections. The difference may lie in the fact that already and altogether became single words back in the Middle Ages, whereas alright has only been around for a little more than a century and was called out by language critics as a misspelling. Consequently, one who uses alright, especially in formal writing, runs the risk that readers may view it as an error or as the willful breaking of convention.

[Subordinate Claw...]

Alright class! Way to go! Your answers were all right!

Alright, you turkeys, straighten out and fly right! (Certainly not All right, you turkeys ...")

You screwed up, alright. Now re-read the directions, you dooufus!

Alright, alright, I promise to take out the garbage in five minutes! Quit nagging!

I'll see you at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow, alright?

Opponents feebly counter with, "Yeah, right, Claws! You gonna also put in for alwrong?" [apples 'n' oranges, opponents ...]

Then I counter with: "Is all ready already? Altogether, I'd say they put it all together in record time.

The list could go on. There is a legit need for alright. The Googled hits for which of the two occurs most may still be 2-1 in favor of sticking with all right, but the majority will continue to wake up and inexorably make the switch. I'm seeing it (and :clapping each time) more and more in TV print (news, ads) newspaper (news/ads).

Koichero, if you use alright as I have used it in my samples, you'll be more sugoi [cooler] than the other ostriches (those who have their heads buried in the sand). You'll be ahead of them modernitywise.

[wonderwhy]

Regarding "alright" and "all right," there is no difference in meaning, but there's a lot to say about the spellings. Merriam Webster is a bit more liberal than other dictionaries, or at least less willing to be judgmental. The American Heritage Dictionary is more conservative and considered by some to be more "authoritative." AHD is more willing to label something as "substandard."


al·right
adv. Nonstandard
All right. See Usage Note at all right.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
.
.
.
Usage Note: Despite the appearance of the form alright in works of such well-known writers as Langston Hughes and James Joyce, the single word spelling has never been accepted as standard. This is peculiar, since similar fusions such as already and altogether have never raised any objections. The difference may lie in the fact that already and altogether became single words back in the Middle Ages, whereas alright has only been around for a little more than a century and was called out by language critics as a misspelling. Consequently, one who uses alright, especially in formal writing, runs the risk that readers may view it as an error or as the willful breaking of convention.

Actually, Freond, AHD takes great pains to point out that these issues are not one of "substandard"; they are issues of "nonstandard" versus "standard". 'substandard' is a terribly misleading term.

They go to greater lengths to point out and up that 'nonstandard' does not mean incorrect; nor does 'standard' mean correct. They also quite pointedly tell that each works perfectly well in its own sphere and that a person would look hopelessly silly trying to force 'standard' in the purview of 'nonstandard'.

These grammatical giants who stomp all over 'alright' seem to have missed a stunning number of other changes to language over the last century. It's strange to me why anyone would want to put store in these folks when all they can do is keep dragging out the same dog and pony show. That doesn't say scholarship to me.

Who in their right mind would ever want to willfully break one of those "conventions"?

[Subordinate Claw...]

[quote name='Freond' date='Nov 17 2009, 05:48 PM' post='20796']
Regarding your first question, "in" or "within" would probably never be used in this situation, and would not be natural, so I won't comment on "difference in meanings." Such a use of "of" with a period of time is common:

This is the first day of the rest of your life.
Monday is the first day of the work week.
June is the sixth month of the year.
Call me the first of next week.

Regarding "alright" and "all right," there is no difference in meaning, but there's a lot to say about the spellings.
[SNIP]
__________

Freond, no difference in meaning? There's a heck of a difference of meaning in my post on alright vs. all right.

[Freond]

Regarding "alright" and "all right," there is no difference in meaning, but there's a lot to say about the spellings.
[SNIP]
__________

Freond, no difference in meaning? There's a heck of a difference of meaning in my post on alright vs. all right.

So you are using "alright" as some sort of interjection, as in "Alright, class, listen up!"? Interesting. I may soon be agreeing with you. As you know, I'm very interested in the evolution of English, especially that which we see going on today. This is definitely an an example of an evolutionary trend in spelling, and, as you point out, probably in a new meaning for this phrase. I'm not sure I'm ready to accept it at this point. Such enthusiastic embracing of a new term by the usually curmudgeonly and conservative Claws surprises me.

How would you define the meaning of "alright" in this context? Can you give me a dictionary entry?

In Kochiro's examples, however, I still think there is no differnce in meaning.

[Subordinate Claw...]

So you are using "alright" as some sort of interjection, as in "Alright, class, listen up!"? Interesting. I may soon be agreeing with you. As you know, I'm very interested in the evolution of English, especially that which we see going on today. This is definitely an an example of an evolutionary trend in spelling, and, as you point out, probably in a new meaning for this phrase. I'm not sure I'm ready to accept it at this point. Such enthusiastic embracing of a new term by the usually curmudgeonly and conservative Claws surprises me. Moi?

How would you define the meaning of "alright" in this context? Can you give me a dictionary entry?

In Kochiro's examples, however, I still think there is no differnce in meaning.

It has just occurred to me that, to save our skin (from turning red), we must admit that a spoken alright or all right is not what we are addressing, quite obviously.

Most all of my sentence samples concerning all right and alright (earlier on this thread) were written more in the style of vocalizing (in which case, who cares how they're spelled?) vs. on the written page. But let's pretend that I wrote all those lines for a play; they were in the script. Anyway:

Alright could have as many definitions as its varied contexts -- maybe most under the hood of interjection:

"Alright [a.k.a. listen up], you brats! (Remember, I'm writing lines for a play here.)

"You screwed it up, alright [a.k.a. that's for sure]. ("You screwed it up all right" could, hands down, win the "non sequitur of the month" trophy.)

"Alright, alright! [a.k.a. stifle], I'll empty the garbage when the football game ends. Quit nagging me!"

"I'll pick you up at 9:00 a.m., tomorrow, alright?" [a.k.a., OK with you?] Speaking of that context, I'd say that for at least the last 20 years or so, teens have orally dumped alright? for A'ight? [response:] A'ight! (rhymes with "kite"), so I may be picking at a long-dead carcass here. I doubt if we'll soon see a'ight in written form, but you never know.

I'm surprised you've labeled me curmudgeonly and conservative. I like to think I'm smack-dab in the middle. All of us have our Englilsh language faves and NFWs [No Freaking Way's] and they're all different. For example, I will never relent on "Try and ..." sentences, even though I've unwittingly used them. Grammatically, they're ridiculous, but everybody says/writes them anyway. So it wins, much to my everlasting chagrin. We had a battle royal here years and years ago over "Try and ...": Kathleen vs. Claws. Today, I/we may be conservative when and where others are liberal (grammatically speaking), and I/we may be liberal when and where others are conservative re other English language issues. That's what kinda makes it fun! Even when we got hot under the collar!

The rise of ... is comprised of ... [consists of dammit] " ... is comprised of ..." to me is like saying is included of gagged me with a spoon, which I've long since swallowed. It wins. I lose. There's another word that, through a century or two, has of late re-surfaced as OK, was once OK, then not, now it's OK again ... and wins. It's all over the media. I'm having a senior moment, and I'll think of it in a later post to this thread. Oh yeah, just remembered: impact is increasingly verbing all over the place. "His speech last night really impacted us!" !#$%^&*() ... Oh really? May I see your crater? Aarrgghhh.

When it comes to a possible, potential changing of the guard [English spellings/meanings], each of us says one of two things about the word in question: "Never!" Or "Ho-hum, way overdue!" One person's meat is another person's poison.

I swear that over the past 20 to 30 years, I have seen alright make constant, steady progress. It ain't made the BCS championship game yet, but ...

Claws, you obviously didn't sub today, did you. [Yawn ...]

This post has been edited by Subordinate Claws: Nov 18 2009, 05:32 PM

[koichiro]

Thanks for the instructions, everybody!
As for "all right" vs. "alright," I didn't expect the argument would be beyond my understanding.
Anyway, reading your comments and instructions is always helpful to me!

koichiro