spoiler
alt text: A two panel comic. In the first panel there are two buttons labeled “I don’t believe in prescriptivism” and “‘Literally’ cannot mean ‘figuratively’”. A finger hovers between the buttons. In the second panel, the finger’s owner is sweating and wiping his brow, unable to decide.
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Literally can mean figuratively if you hate being clear, but it’s a much easier world to live in if words don’t mean two precisely fucking opposite things.
Plenty of words mean two precisely opposite things. Cleave, clip, dust, sanction, argue, drop, and a bunch of other examples that I’m shamelessly copying from a website
Language doesn’t work properly without context anyway. Saying “I literally died” has one obvious meaning when I’m talking about a meme someone posted on discord, and a different obvious meaning when I’m talking to the news about the time my heart stopped beating.
You aren’t interacting with the premise of my argument. I’m not saying this hasn’t happened before. I’m saying is it useful to add another one that has no actual use beyond “I cannot think of an adverb”?
The premise of your argument is ‘why aren’t people more rational?’. That’s a silly premise.
No one ever seems to have a problem with really (as in real) or very (from verily, ie true) being used in figurative senses, however.
“Literally” doesn’t mean “figuratively”. It’s just an intensifier.
