Misuse of Expression Don't Read Too Much Into It
Nick Clegg is literally Britain's deputy prime minister. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters
The Today programme on Radio four had a fascinating debate on the misuse of the word literally. You can hear the whole thing here and it's well worth a listen. Information technology seems to accept been prompted past this prime number example from the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, on Saturday, when he said:
Information technology makes people then incredibly aroused when you lot are getting up early in the morning, working really hard to try and practise the right thing for your family unit and for your community, you are paying your taxes and and so you see people literally in a dissimilar galaxy who are paying extraordinarily low rates of taxation.
Ane guest on Radio four pointed out that that is quite a long style for someone to become but for a taxation abstention scheme.
Among the other examples quoted on the Today programme was the TV celebrity Ulrika Jonsson, when talking about the Swedish system of child custody later on divorce, said that they "literally will split the child in one-half to live ane calendar week with the mother ..." The vocalizer/actor Rachel Stevens described her legs as "literally turning to jelly" on Strictly Come Dancing. Twitter picked upward the mantle with a deluge of examples.
@dangerhere suggested:
Jamie Redknapp: "In his youth, Michael Owen was literally a greyhound."
@GromKath suggested:
Leona Lewis, on winning Ten-Factor ''I LITERALLY jumped out of my pare''
In that location was also a slightly higher-forehead debate about what the right use of the word is:
@TJCA90 tweeted:
Figuratively speaking, I dislike how people say #literally when they mean metaphorically.
The appropriately named @MiddleClassHB wrote:
People, the opposite of #literally is #figuratively. Don't offset going circular proverb "Metaphorically...", similar an A-level English student.
The misuse of the word literally is well documented and much complained nearly. Search the term on YouTube and you lot'll observe many comedians labouring the betoken. It'south idea of equally a modern linguistic oddity but in fact the give-and-take has been misused for centuries.
On Twitter @sarahditum points out that Fowler's dictionary of mod English usage (1996 edition) records the misuse of the term as far as the early 19th century.
From the 16th century onwards it has been used to betoken that the accompanying word or phrase must be taken in the literal sense: east.g. It is institute that the Human activity does not mean literally what it says–Law Fourth dimension Rep., 1895. A word of this blazon, yet, is liable to become weakened in sense, i.due east. to be used in contexts where information technology does not exactly fit. Uses of this kind, displaying varying degrees of inexactness, have been recorded since at least the early C19th. The OED (1903) expressed it thus: 'Now often improperly used to indicate that some conventional or hypothetical phrase is to be taken in the strongest possible sense.' It's a case of 'stop, look, and think before using the word in whatever way short of its verbal sense.
In this fascinating 2005 National Public Radio interview Jesse Sheidlower, editor at large of the Oxford English Dictionary, cites literary examples of the word literally being used to "intensify statements" as early as the 17th century and misused from the 19th century. But he says objections were but raised in the early 20th century. He said:
As is often the case, though, such abuses accept a long and esteemed history in English. The footing was non peculiarly glutinous in "Piddling Women" when Louisa May Alcott wrote: 'The land literally flowed with milk and honey.' Tom Sawyer was not turning somersaults on piles of coin when Marking Twain described him every bit 'literally rolling in wealth'. Jay Gatsby was not shining when Fitzgerald wrote that he 'literally glowed'. Such examples are easily come up by, even in the works of the authors nosotros are oft told to emulate.
How did literally come up to mean the opposite of what it originally meant, either 'word for word' or 'exactly'? By the belatedly 17th century, 'literally' was being used as an intensifier for true statements. Jane Austen wrote of existence 'literally rocked in bed on a stormy night.' In such examples, 'literally' is beingness used for the sake of emphasis alone. Eventually, though, 'literally' began to be used to intensify statements that were themselves figurative or metaphorical. You tin can find examples throughout the 19th century, but no one seems to have objected until the early 20th. In 1909, the satirist Ambrose Bierce included the term in "Write information technology Correct," a little blacklist of literary faults. 'It is bad plenty to exaggerate,' he wrote, 'but to affirm the truth of the exaggeration is intolerable.'
In truth, many words are used in seemingly contradictory ways. They're known as Janus words, contronymns or autoantonyms. They include 'cleave,' which means both 'to stick to' and 'to divide apart,' and the verb 'dust,' meaning both 'to remove dust from' and to 'sprinkle dust upon.' And don't forget 'peruse' and 'scan,' each of which ways both 'to read closely' and 'to skim.'
Does information technology matter? Get in bear upon with examples or opinions below the line, tweet me at @pollycurtis or email polly.curtis@guardian.co.great britain.
Tom Chivers, the Telegraph's, assistant annotate editor, has written this interesting blog on the fence arguing that nosotros shouldn't take Jamie Redknapp literally and that he's right - the mutual understanding of the term is at present equally an emphasiser. He writes:
"Literally" is just doing the same work as "really" or "honestly" or "actually", emphasising the truth of the argument, not its non-metaphorical nature.
So we're incorrect to criticise Jamie Redknapp for saying "literally". Words only mean what people sympathize them to mean, and no one thinks he ways that David Silva can levitate; and even if we are obsessed with etymology and past apply, the discussion has not meant solely "non-metaphorical" for centuries, if it ever really did. We can say we don't similar it – I, for example, recall that in that location are plenty of words which mean "really" or "very much", and only one word which does the work "literally" does, and information technology's nice to keep these things separate. Just in the stop information technology's just sense of taste. And, what's more than, it's a shibboleth in the 2d-oldest sense of that word: like pronouncing information technology "haitch" or using "impact" as a verb, information technology tells those of us who are snobbish that this person is Non Similar United states. So, before you literally get on your loftier horse almost "literally", remember that you're wrong. Literally, and actually, wrong. And Jamie Redknapp is right.
Jamie Redknapp
By popular consensus Redknapp deserves an entry of his ain in the catalogue of errors of the use of the discussion literally. Our Mind your linguistic communication web log covered Redknapp'south unique and repeated use of the word here.
This link came via @harry_lime and includes the gems:
These balls at present - they literally explode off your feet.
He's literally left Ben Haim for dead there.
Alonso and Sissoko have been picked to literally sit in front end of the back four.
And these via the weblog northstandchat:
He had to cut back within onto his left, considering he literally hasn't got a correct foot.
He's literally turned him within out.
That cross to Rooney was literally on a plate.
James Schofield, who is working on our newsdesk with united states of america this calendar week, has come up upward with some more examples of when literally goes wrong. (Chapeau tips to these three blogs: http://world wide web.parryphernalia.com/?tag=literally-misuse, http://literally.barelyfitz.com/ and http://literallymisused.com/).
Jerry Falwell, the late evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor:
Someone must not be afraid to say, 'moral perversion is wrong.' If we do not human activity now, homosexuals volition own America! If yous and I do not speak upwards now, this homosexual steamroller will literally crush all decent men, women, and children who get in its way … and our nation volition pay a terrible price!
Fearne Cotton had a rather nasty time with a rogue book. She tweeted regarding her book club reading:
I was literally dragged through this book squirming, gasping and wincing.
A Radio 5Live weather condition forecast of:
Literally just a spot or two of pelting.
Kate Silverton on BBC News:
Y'all were upwards against the Norwegians who are literally born on skis.
A Joe Biden voice communication from August 2008 had eight uses of the discussion literally, including:
The next President of the United States is going to be delivered to the most significant moment in American history since Franklin Roosevelt. He will have such an incredible opportunity, incredible opportunity, not only to change the direction of America, but literally, literally to change the direction of the world...
Ladies and gentlemen, America gave Jill and me our chance. It gave Barack and Michelle their chance to stand on this stage today. It's literally incredible.Folks, once more, it's not political sloganary when I say we literally can't beget four more years of this non- energy policy written by and for the oil companies, making usa more than and more dependent from hostile nations on our ability to run this country and literally, not figuratively, literally putting America'due south security at risk, nosotros can't beget four more than years of a foreign policy that has shredded our alliances and sacrificed our moral standing around the world.
Thank you very much for all your comments below the line where readers have been pointing out some lovely literary misuses of literally. @Rlnbvt has this from Vladimir Nabokov's Invitation to a beheading:
And with his optics he literally scoured the corners of the jail cell.
@R1cardo points out Mrs Markleham in David Copperfield, saying:
Perhaps y'all know, Miss Trotwood, that at that place is never a candle lighted in this house, until one's eyes are literally falling out of ane'due south head with being stretched to read the paper.
As well as this passage from Jane Eyre:
Mr. Rochester continued blind the first two years of our union; perhaps it was that circumstance that drew u.s. so very near, that knit us so very close: for I was then his vision, equally I am still his right manus. Literally, I was (what he ofttimes called me) the apple tree of his middle.
@Newportonian gives his favourite, his local paper reporting on the perilous position of a local dairy farmer:
With the price of feed beingness what it is today, the cows are literally milking him.
Readers have also been coming up with other contranyms - a word that tin mean the opposite of itself – such every bit sanction (@Paulhalsall).
@Prego writes:
One can pare a banana, and 1 can unpeel a banana, and both verbs mean the same thing. Literally.
@FilmPixie writes:
I've frequently wondered about the word "cleave."As in, a meat cleaver separates meat into two pieces but in the old marriage service the man "broken" to the woman.
And MickGJ has:
Alternatively at that place's "flammable" and "inflammable" significant the same. There's a great line from Cheers nigh that where Woody the barman chips in with "Male child, did I detect that 1 out the difficult way."
@Threadworm gives us this very reasoned analysis:
Many terms that function as intensifiers (i.e. words that strengthen/amplify the meaning of the word or phrase that they qualify) have earlier meanings that map quite poorly onto their role equally intensifiers. Think of "and so," "actually," "clumsily," "terribly." But nosotros accept these readily considering they have had the role of intensifier long plenty for their other meanings to lie dormant when we hear them operating as such.
The just difference with "literally" is that its function as an intensifier is newer, and then its other meaning still clamours in our mind when nosotros hear information technology. The anxiety about this new role for "literally" is only the usual case of pedantry failing to keep upwardly with linguistic development.
There are also words that do the opposite of intensifying -- words that dampen the strength of the terms they qualify -- "fairly," "quite," "rather," etc. And these as well tend to accept earlier meanings that map poorly onto their "dampening" part.
"Quite" is a brilliant instance. It ways something like "exactly" rather than "only a fiddling bit." But we readily accept its use every bit a dampner, in expressions similar "I'thousand quite hungry, but non very." AND we have its apply to the opposite effect, as an intensifier: the expression "You are quite right," means something like "You are very right," non "You are a piddling bit correct."
Words take their ain lives and careers.
@Nollafyzzil writes:
Really enjoying the thought that Michael Owen used to be a greyhound.
Others enjoyed that so much they accept got photoshop involved. These images, of Rachel Stevens with Jelly legs and Michael Owen as a greyhound, were created by 4 yr nine students, Shannon, Holly, Emma and Charlotte (and their English teacher Ms Jarvis). Thank you for that.
Rachel Stevens with jelly legs
Michael Owen equally a greyhound
Nosotros've also learned some of the other words and phrases people on this thread hate. They include: qualifying accented statements eg "Totally unique"; the overuse of "similar" and "actually"; the misuse of "ironic"; and Nick Clegg.
Thanks very much for all your comments, Tweets and emails today.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis/2012/mar/12/reality-check-literally-wrong-use-word
0 Response to "Misuse of Expression Don't Read Too Much Into It"
Post a Comment