#723 Expectations

Robert the Intern came into the station the other day and said, “I think I have something for one of your funny man things. I just walked by these two people sitting in the park and one was saying to the other, ‘Was it supposed to be this sunny?’ Like they couldn’t enjoy a sunny day unless someone had proclaimed it beforehand.”
Obviously not native northwesterners, who by February will gladly sacrifice their Shih Tzu for 30 seconds of random sunlight. But it brings up an interesting point.
“Supposed to be” is not some edict from on high. At least if you’re not a cranky five year old who belts out “Those cookies are spost to be mine!” The word “supposed” in that rendering, has usually been contracted to the single syllable “spost.” And it is almost always delivered with that high intensity partial-whine/partial sulky demand, with a potential pout hovering on the emotional horizon.
Apparently, as we grow older, we still allow “supposed to be” to occupy that realm of factual certainty. As if instead of a consensus of guessing, it’s a command from the king.
“It’s supposed to be sunny,” as usually asserted, carries with it the expectation that it definitely will be sunny and if it isn’t there is grounds for complaint. “Supposed to be” means “should be.” But really, if you parse the phrase, you see that the word “supposed” is actually a word like “assumed” or “guessed” or at the very most “expected.”
“I suppose you can go to the store,” means I can picture your going to the store as one possible scenario of many that I would agree to. “I supposed it was a Lhasa Apso and not a Shih Tzu,” implies I wasn’t sure, and that was my best guess.
Take these two phrases. “He was supposed, by many, to be a good president.” And, “He was supposed to be a good president.” They really mean the same thing.
But dropping the “by many” somehow adds an element of disappointment and violation to the second sentence.
I don’t think we’re supposed to use “supposed” that way.
America, ya gotta love it.