Congressional Democrats found a lot of ways to pay for the country’s health insurance overhaul, some more popular than others. But one in particular has small lawn services, work-at-home parents and the nation’s smallest businesses mighty concerned."Mighty concerned," eh? Dern-tootin' they're concerned, 'cuz all them high-falutin' city folk up in Washington are a bunch of Commies.
No, seriously, I got the impression from "mighty concerned" that PolitiFact was trying to give some kind of down home flavor to the opinion of those who operate lawn services and the like.
From Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, page 634:
The use of mighty as an adverbial intensifier has been looked at askance since at least 1829, when the sentence "That is a mighty big dog" was given in Joseph Hervey Hull's Grammar as an "incorrect phrase" to be corrected.Not exactly an auspicious beginning. The book confirmed my reading of the connotations attached to its use as an "adverbial intensifier":
In current American English, it usually conveys a folksy, down-home feeling or a rural atmosphere ...The entry concludes by saying that the usage is grammatically correct, and a writer should not refrain from using it if it serves a purpose.
I wonder what purpose it was to serve in the PolitiFact story? Maybe dropping lawn service workers, work-at-home parents and small business owners a notch closer to yokel status? It can't be the way writer Stephen Koff and editor Robert Higgs of PolitiFact Ohio normally write, can it?
Update:
About the adverb, from Reuters' Handbook of Journalism:
Like adjectives they should be used sparingly. Avoid adverbs that imply judgment, e.g. generously, harshly, and sternly.
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