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Re: OT: "literally"



At the deflationary end are the litotically addicted; though litosis
is not an entirely undesirable device.

On Jun 9, at 1:40 PM, Patricia M. Godfrey wrote:
Flash wrote:
"Literally" has become verbal weeds. It's not even an intensifier here.

Now that's a very nice trope. "Verbal weeds"--I LIKE it.
> "new paradigm" is inflation.
And inflation is one of the chief causes of verbicide. Here's C. S. Lewis on the subject:

>>Verbicide, the murder of a word, happens in many ays. Inflation is
>>one of the commonest; those who taught us to say awfully for
>>`very', tremendous for`great', sadism for `cruelty',
>>and unthinkable for 'undesirable' were verbicides.<<

--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx


David Auerbach
Department of Philosophy & Religion
Box 8103	
Raleigh, NC 27695-8103 http:// slowfoodusa.org auerbach@xxxxxxxx http:// slowfoodtriangle.org