Literal and Figurative Language… Literal language is when we say what we mean. Like ‘The news van is parked outside,’ or ‘Meeting new people makes me nervous.’ ...

The figurative reading becomes more and more possible, as speakers capitalize exclusively on the expressive force rather than the word’s former shell of literality.

Few words so rile language purists as the use of the adverb “literally” in a figurative sense, as in, “That movie literally blew my mind”.. But as a linguist who studies how English has ...