Go Ahead and Use “literally” Figuratively
Stephen Pinker, a well-known linguist who is not Noam Chomsky, doesn’t think using “literally” in a figurative sense is too bad. “Figurative use does not mean that the language is deteriorating,” he says in a 2014 interview, comparing it to the hyperbolic use of the words “amazing” or “wonderful.”
“But literally is a special case!” perhaps you are ready to comment. “It has a specific meaning that determines the value of truth,” you might add. Like many other words. The word “fantastic”, for example, at first meant something false or imaginary . Over the course of a couple of centuries, it has acquired the metaphorical meaning that we usually think today: “very good.” But while some may whine that they are being abused, no one still complains that “fantastic” should only mean “fictional”.
Pinker says that this is how the language works:
It is clear why people do this. We are always looking for superlatives, ways to convince our listener that what happened is remarkable or even unusual. And the words we use to mean eventually lose their meaning.
Of course, it’s much easier to live with the word “fantastic” when everyone already agrees with the new meaning. During the transition, it “literally” loses some of its usefulness, which is a headache.
But there are many other terms – in fact, in fact, in fact, in fact, in fact, to be honest – to convey the same meaning. And human communication includes tools such as context and tone that help us detect irony, informality, and generalization. Of course, all these tools can also be turned over – an imperturbable phrase is irony disguised as sincerity. But this is what we get when we crawl out of the sea and try to communicate with each other.