Re: OT: "literally"

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

Harry Binswanger wrote:
> Hmmm, I hadn't thought of "literal" as meaning "without hyperbole." I
> guess you could say, "I literally panicked." But in Pogue's article, who
> could think "I use to pack two laptops" was hyperbole?
Hyperbole (exaggerating for effect) has nothing to do with it.
"Literally" contrasts with "metaphorically." "She literally died of
fright" is correct and proper if the poor lady is, in fact, dead. It
is misleading, pretentious, and flat-out silly if you're just saying
she was scared stiff. (That's a cliché, of course, but even a cliché
would be less obnoxious than a misused "literally.") Now nine times
out of ten, when someone writes "literally," he or she doesn't mean
it. "Metaphorically" is what is meant (seem my--or rather Fowler's &
Gowers's--examples in my previous), but the ham-handed writer thinks
he can make the statement sound more emphatic by saying "literally."
In that sense, hyperbole does, I suppose, enter in--more in the
psychology of the author than the language of his prose.

--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx