A few weeks ago on Bill Maher on HBO, the host raised up a book at the end of the show. It was titled, 14,000 things to be happy about, by Barbara Ann Kipfer. He read off a few items and said something along the lines of, "talk about that shit, not politics, during the holidays."
I promptly went to Amazon and ordered the book, as, apparently, did many thousands of others because the thing was quickly backordered and it took a while to receive it.
I've been having trouble lately coming up with things to write about, because, let's face it, I'm sitting on my butt and things are kind of boring right now and how many times can I kvetch about the fact that I didn't get my hardwood flooring because nobody wants to work or do a proper job anymore. Plus the holidays are coming up and I don't want to be depressing. All you have to do is read the news for that.
I am not sure why people read my blog (thank you, dear readers) but I don't think it is for any of those things on a long-term basis. (You probably come for the photos, right? Am I right?) Yet I also think that, given my history of almost-daily writing, I owe you something new most days, if not every day.
Anyway, I'm going to pick a topic out of this book when I want to write something and nothing comes to mind, simply by opening up a page.
Grasping literal and figurative was the item that caught my eye on page 162 of the list of 14,000 things to be happy about.
Now what the heck does this mean, grasping literal and figurative?
First, dictionary definitions.
Literal: 1. taking words in their usual or most basic sense without metaphor or allegory. "dreadful in its literal sense, full of dread"; 2.(of a translation) representing the exact words of the original text. (synonyms: word-for-word · verbatim · line-for-line · letter-for-letter · exact · precise) 3.(of a person or performance) lacking imagination; prosaic. (synonyms: literal-minded · down-to-earth · factual · matter-of-fact · no-nonsense) -- (FYI: prosaic means "lacking poetic beauty, commonplace, unromantic.")
Figurative: 1. of the nature of or involving a figure of speech, especially a metaphor; metaphorical and not literal: example: The word “head” has several figurative senses, as in “She's the head of the company.” 2. metaphorically so called: His remark was a figurative boomerang. 3. abounding in or fond of figures of speech: Elizabethan poetry is highly figurative.
So, literal means literal. Figurative means something other than not literal, though. It's not exactly it's opposite. Is it?
If I say, "wood is hard," then that's literal.
If I say, "wood is like a dead, dull heart in the chest of a murderer" then that's figurative. I am making the assumption that a murderer has a hard heart, which I am then comparing to wood.
This is a difficult concept to write about and to understand. People use the word "literally" incorrectly with frequency. "I literally ran faster than the speeding train to get to my job on time" is not a true statement - it's an overkill use of the word "literal" because of course you didn't actually run as fast as a speeding train. You're throwing in "literally" as an adverb to overstate your case for the fact that you were almost late for work.
The sentence itself could be figurative: I ran faster than a speeding train to catch the bus so I could get to my job on time" is figurative. (It's also very Superman-ish, isn't it?)
So when reading a news story, one would think everything in it would be literal, but over time we've come to accept more and more a figurative way of describing things. Let me go find an article and let's look at it.
I went to Bing and here's the first story on the page:
The Latest: Federal Courthouse closed in Alaska after quake.
What in this story could be figurative?
"rocked a wide swath" - possibly.
"frayed the nerves of quake-weary Alaskans" - figurative and also a cliché.
Everything else, though, is pretty literal. No heat in the courthouse. The 7.0 earthquake caused widespread damage.
That was pretty easy. But in opinion, which unfortunately most of the 24-hour news consists of, it is not so easy to distinguish. This is especially true if we're listening and not reading. It is much easier to see figurative speech in writing than to catch it when we're listening. Let's be honest: most of us listen with only half an ear anyway. (Did you see what I did there? Is that "half an ear" literal or figurative?)
If you think you know a rose when you hear it, consider if this is actually true. Sometimes roses turn out to be skunks in disguise.
Maybe this is something to think about the next time you want to ponder. Was what you heard opinion? Was it fact? Was it literal? Was it figurative?
Congratulate yourself if you can figure out the difference.
Interesting post. Not one that I would normally imagine to be here but it is. Somedays it can be difficult to find something new to write about.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought I had an understanding of the difference, but you've shown there is a more subtle level to it. You've also literally made my poor, tired-after-a-long-day-at-work brain hurt just a bit. ;)
ReplyDeleteFiguratively speaking, you should have flipped the page and got another topic. Please don't take that in the literal sense.................Lol!
ReplyDeleteCome on guys! She is trying! It is not as easy as it looks especially when you have limitations. Although it was a different kind of topic than we are use to.. I’ll give her a A for creativity in finding a subject to work off of.
ReplyDeleteWhy do people even have to add the word "literally" or to their sentence? For example: "I ate breakfast literally later than usual." is no different than "I ate breakfast later than usual." Do they think they're smarter by adding word "literally"? I suppose literally took the place of the overused "like".
ReplyDeleteSounds like a lesson I have to teach in my middle school English class, so I found this interesting. My second language learners have a very difficult time with figurative language.
ReplyDelete