Re: OT: "literally"

[Flash flash@xxxxxxxx]

Y'all,

≪Rather, I think, he's using it as an intensifier, as in "this is no joke" or "God's honest truth".  Like it or not, "literally" has acquired this secondary meaning, especially in informal speech. ≫

I don't like it either, and I am sick and tired of hearing it. Neither, of course, literally, sick to my stomach, nor literally narcoleptic, but rather fed up. Not, of course, literally, fed up to the top of my esophagus.

≪"It literally took him a couple [of] seconds to compute this new paradigm that Frank was expressing." I'm trying to figure out what, if anything, "literally" adds to this sentence.≫

≪I think this "literally" is correct: it means he's denying that it was maybe 30 seconds or a couple of minutes, but just literally two (or maybe three) seconds. You can argue with the placement of the "literally"--where it is makes it sound like it modifies "took."≫

"Literally" has become verbal weeds. It's not even an intensifier here. What is supposed to be intensified? The author's credibility in judging elapsed time? Or the reader's credulity?

"It took him a couple of seconds to compute this new paradigm Frank was expressing," lacks for nothing.

Without more context, it is difficult to judge whether the author was being facetious, or hyperbolic, or ironic, or something else which would significantly modify the context (and therefore the legitimacy of the choice of words). "Computing a paradigm" does sound peculiar, unless the author was talking about paradigms in mathematics (e.g., Intuitionism) or informatics (e.g., fuzzy logic). I suppose, without further context, that the author meant "comprehend" but used "compute" for literary effect.

As for comprehending paradigms, how long does it usually take to comprehend a new one? Is two seconds an unusually long time, literally taxing our credulity that, in this case, it took so much longer? "It took a whopping TWO [sic] SECONDS(!!!) to compute this new paradigm...."

Einstein introduced a new paradigm a hundred years ago and we are still trying to comprehend it in all of its ramifications. To comprehend a new paradigm in only two seconds does strain the reader's credulity. Assuming it ever happened, "It took only/just a couple of seconds..." would express this exactly.

I find the use of "new paradigm" for "any casual notion" more offensive than liberal helpings of "literally". "Literally" is slap dash; "new paradigm" is inflation. Rather like using "genocide" for "mass murder", which is becoming common in the news media. There is sensationalism in "genocide", but it should be distinguished from "mass murder".

Sorry to leave you on such a dreadful note.