Re:Musical sensor shows bad medicine plays false note
by dragonwriter on Saturday September 15, 2018 @02:50AM
(#17993315)
> The submitted title is using "literally" in the inverse meaning ("figuratively"), which is very confusing.
While even dictionaries get this wrong, the non-literal usage of “literally” doesn't mean “figuratively”, it assumes the audience understands that the comparison it modifies is metaphorical without “literally” bearing any load in that, but asserts further that the feature evoked by the metaphor is strongly present, that is, that it is an intensifier for the comparison built into the use of metaphor. It is roughly the equivalent of, were the bare metaphor replaced by an “as if” simile, the “literally” in the metaphor functioning as converting the “as if” in the simile to “very much as if”.
The incorrect explanation of this use is as big a pet peeve of mine as the use itself is to people who don't like the idea that “literally” has a figurative use (which, OTOH, I have no more problem with than I do with “figurative” having a literal use.)
While even dictionaries get this wrong, the non-literal usage of “literally” doesn't mean “figuratively”, it assumes the audience understands that the comparison it modifies is metaphorical without “literally” bearing any load in that, but asserts further that the feature evoked by the metaphor is strongly present, that is, that it is an intensifier for the comparison built into the use of metaphor. It is roughly the equivalent of, were the bare metaphor replaced by an “as if” simile, the “literally” in the metaphor functioning as converting the “as if” in the simile to “very much as if”.
The incorrect explanation of this use is as big a pet peeve of mine as the use itself is to people who don't like the idea that “literally” has a figurative use (which, OTOH, I have no more problem with than I do with “figurative” having a literal use.)