Xander ,'Lessons'
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
I am sure I misuse literally sometimes. I make other grammar errors too.
If so...do you get snippy if someone asks if that's what you really meant (especially when it's obvious you didn't?)?
No, but now that I teach writing, I make every effort to suppress correcting people's spoken grammar errors. I find it makes people defensive--perhaps since they associate me with teaching and grammar?--and usually when I'm speaking to someone I don't want to make them defensive.
I use "totally" in the same way. So I am annoying, ungrammatical AND a throwback to the '80s.
As in "We totally went to the pier"? I do that all the time. Based on my spoken English, no one should EVER believe I get paid to edit.
I STILL speak to the dog in LOLCAT.
Do you put on a funny accent when you speak LOLCAT? Because I do when I am talking to my cat!
I STILL speak to the dog in LOLCAT.
Hell, I talk to Tim in LOLCAT.
"Literally" used as an intensifier dates as far back as 1760, and examples can be found in Dickens, Joyce, Bronte, Hardy, and more. I think I'm pretty safe in saying that, while idiomatic, "literally" used in this way is not, literally, wrong.
As in "We totally went to the pier"? I do that all the time. Based on my spoken English, no one should EVER believe I get paid to edit.
Or how every year, I totally go to Comic-Con.
I grew up in Southern California in the 80s. I consider "totally" a birthright. Totally.
Based on my spoken English, no one should EVER believe I get paid to edit.
Like, totally, dude, me too!
I don't know if I actually use "literally" (I totally overuse "actually" and probably "totally") when I am not being literal, but I'm not ideologically opposed to it. I do generally get snippy at the drop of a hat, so for that part of the question, probably so.