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It is now often used to mean 'figuratively' or merely for emphasis.
by konradb 8y ago
It is now often used to mean 'figuratively' or merely for emphasis.
- shmerl 8y agoI've never encountered such usage (as figuratively). For emphasis yes, that's not uncommon. But why is the later wrong?
- konradb 8y agoIf I understand your question you asking why it is wrong to use literally for emphasis? I guess that depends on whether you are a linguistic prescriptivist or not (I probably err towards that side, alas, a recipe for unhappiness!). A linguistic prescriptivist might say it was wrong because people might say something they want to emphasise like 'my phone is literally blowing up' - but according to the traditional meaning of the word literally, that means it would be literally blowing up, like an actual explosion. Once 'literally' just means 'emphasise this' then you have to go into further contortions if you actually want to express something that means something that is exactly as described, not figuratively.
- apendleton 8y agoInterestingly, "literally" itself was likely exactly such a contortion to deal with the fact that "really" became an intensifier when before it meant that the manner of something was, you know, real.
- konradb 8y agoLike a linguistic journey through the years to find and describe truth, always being evaded!
- shmerl 8y ago> my phone is literally blowing up I suppose emphasis can turn into exaggeration, then literally is indeed a bad fit. But it can be emphasizing something without exaggeration too. I.e. "literally days ago". Which indeed can mean a few days ago, but it's emphasizing it. I don't think it's a wrong usage.
- dbatten 8y agoCan you show me an example? Most of the examples I've seen are cases where people are using the word "literally" in a hyperbolic sense, which I would argue is perfectly legitimate. For example, suppose somebody says "I'm so hungry, I could literally eat an elephant." It's obvious that they're being hyperbolic because of course nobody eats elephants. Adding literally just adds to the hyperbole because it makes the sentence that much more ridiculous. It's a figure of speech and perfectly legitimate, IMHO.