Talk:credibly

RFV discussion: November–December 2018

This entry has survived Wiktionary's verification process (permalink).

Please do not re-nominate for verification without comprehensive reasons for doing so.

---

credibly

"Used to report the speaker's assessment of the credibility of a reported statement" -- distinct from sense 1, "believably". I don't understand what the use-cases would be. Perhaps me saying "credibly, John was the murderer": but that's still sense 1, "believably": the fact that I am saying it does not change the sense of the word, any more than me saying "grass is green" requires an extra sense at "green" to explain "the speaker's assessment is that there is a green colour". Equinox ◑ 06:12, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

• Doesn't make much sense to me. Just remove it. SemperBlotto (talk) 06:49, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

  Note that believably gives the same sense, Used to express the speaker's assessment of the credibility of a reported statement. I do think it is meaningful to make a distinction between assessment of the credibility of the way a message is delivered and of the credibility of its content. Isn’t this somewhat similar to how hopefully does not always mean ”in a hopeful way” but has a distinct sense listed?  --Lambiam 11:59, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

"Hopefully" is a special case because "hopeful" is an attitude that one holds toward the event (I am hopeful that X will happen). But I would challenge "believably" for the same reason as this "credibly": what example sentence would really show a difference, modulo the speaker's implied opinion? Equinox ◑ 16:39, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Here is an example. “Dr. Cristo credibly testified that current baseline data are necessary in order to design a program for Student.” In this sentence the speaker is not referring to the manner of delivery (like “in a sincere voice”), but to the credibility of the testimony (like “, and we tend to believe her”).  --Lambiam 19:18, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

All I can say is that I disagree: sense 1 fits your example, IMO. Equinox ◑ 15:19, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

The definition appears to be an attempt to describe usage as a sentence adverb (see the treatment at hopefully). The difference is that the term is not modifying the manner of a verb, but describing the believability of the following sentence or clause. An example is this from the magazine Vanity Fair (the snippet does not show the whole sentence, however): "His deep-set eyes and expression of general despair lend him a look of utter dissolution—very credibly, he is dying from sexual desire."

Arguably (I reserve my opinion), it is not a different meaning, but the problem lies in the wording of (the main part of) the first definition, which is specific to the manner adverb usage.— Pingku^dimmi 06:34, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

I have five citations, of which at least four illustrate the challenged usage, which I intended to be as a sentence adverb. Punctuation (commas surrounding the adverb or adverb phrase) can be a good indicator of such usage. DCDuring (talk) 23:52, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

RFV-passed Kiwima (talk) 21:37, 4 December 2018 (UTC)