Saturday, April 29, 2006

 

Figure of Speech

Are there any linguistic historians out there tracking these semantic inversions? Could one of them pinpoint when "literally" started to be used when "figuratively" is appropriate? I heard a journalist, presumably someone who has passed English courses at the college level, say, "The envoy was literally cramming American foreign policy down their throats". Hmmm, what did it taste like? Uh, given what's been going on, I don't think I want to know.

But back to the topic at hand, so to speak. The word "figuratively" refers to a figure of speech. After all, when someone says "head of the government" they are referring to a whole person. That figure of speech is metonymy. Others would use a different body part to refer to our present leader, probably something below the waist.

So, I propose a new adverb to use in place of "figuratively". It's "illiterally". Television journalists who had problems with figures of speech use that to signal the audience that they will be using language badly.

I don't have it in for journalists. It's just that their incorrect language is heard by thousands. Well, come to think of it, how many people read bulletin boards, forums, blogs, and Amazon reviews. Yeah, but those journalists are paid for their words. Hey, if I rent ad space here on my blog page, would that make me a journalist? Would I feel any more responsibility for what I write?

Comments:
You'd probably enjoy this blog, as I do:
http://literally.barelyfitz.com/

Dedicated to examples of the usage of the word "literally".
 
I live with a linguist and appreciate these kinds of observations! Thanks for the blog reference, Blueberry! This is slightly off-topic but still illustrates decline in the use of the English language. Between the two of us, my son and I have recently received three parking tickets in Boulder, a university town. We have been charged with having no 'visable' parking permit. I fought the first one on the grounds that I couldn't be held responsible for not having something that doesn't exist. The word should be visible. I lost my appeal and they continue to print the misspelled word on their tickets!
 
I have been an amateur and professional journalist since I was a teenager. As such, I offer this, imho: A journalist is anyone who communicates past events to another person. The rest is just commentary.
 
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