In this piece of your regular weekly take-home lesson, English for Communicators, I want to focus on, and address specifically, the literary angle of the language, particularly for those who often engage figures of speech and idiomatic expressions to drive home arguments in concrete terms, or as intensifiers to relief tension and create humour. However, I have to warn from the outset that the adjective, “figurative,” and adverb, “literally,” may not mean the same thing, or would one be substituted for the other. Far from it.
But the mistake or error of interchanging the five-syllable word, “figuratively,” the adverb derived from the adjective, “figurative,” with the four-syllable adverb, “literally” have lingered on for so long, because the man in the street, including some of the language enthusiasts have decided to look the other way, ignoring the fact that this anomaly should be corrected. And so, the reading and listening audiences are left to decide which way to go, since the media, for example, dictate the way to follow, linguistically. This indecision appears to have engendered the lurk warm attitude exhibited by many towards the language. From experience, it doesn’t matter how the language is used to address issues that affect society.
But for the purists and masters, it matters how the vocabulary is employed to be understood, minimise errors and avoid ambiguity. The priests of the language are unanimous that the Queen’s English is sacrosanct, and that nothing should stand on its way to compromise or reduce the standard flavour of the current, free flowing 21st century English. As usual, and to put straight the record, and taking a cue from reliable sources, the adverb, “figuratively,” points to a metaphor. For instance, writing dressed or clothed in metaphor, or full of figures of speech. It could also represent a figure, pictorial, showing things as they look, Chambers 21st Century Dictionary insists.
To state it clearer, we need to understand the role, the noun, “metaphor” plays, even when we are engrossed or occupied with pushing our thoughts across, targeting the publics, we do so by using metaphors to create reality, especially, where there are no pictures or images to back up our stories. Metaphor, according to the reference books, is “an expression in which the person, action or thing referred to is described as if really were what it merely resembles.” The dictionary quoted the example of rejection, which could be metaphorically interpreted as a “slap in the face,” or a ferocious person or aggressor, or individual as “tiger.”
On the other hand, the adverb, “literally” is used as an intensifier in figurative contexts, the dictionary argues. Just as we have these words as intensifiers: actually, really, absolutely, therefore, thereby, and so, precisely, exactly, strictly, rigorously to stress our presentations. The reference materials went on to correct the notion that, the adverb, “literally” is often regarded as incorrect or poor style, but that it is an appropriate intensifier within the context of the idiom it is intensifying: as other intensifiers like, “really,” and “utterly” would not work within the image of metaphor on which the idiom is based. For example, “the red carpet was literally out of for them,” “Nurses are literally worrying themselves sick trying to cope with the increased pressures of their job.”
Even as some of the language purists try to blot out “literally” in favour of “figuratively,” the two can be used to represent different things. It’s all about knowing how, where and when to fix them to make the desired impact. But that the adverb, “figuratively,” can be interchanged with the adverb, “literally,” is a misnomer and misuse of the two different words. The bottom line is; just as the authoritative Chambers 21st Century Dictionary and other reference books, caution; “literally is in common use to intensify an idiom, and this is not incorrect, as some of the literary giants would argue. “Figuratively” is more of idiomatic expression to flavour or add ‘pepper’ to our write ups for easy and unambiguous comprehension of the idea or thought we sell to the audience.
