The distinction between literal and figurative language exists in all

natural language A natural language or ordinary language is a language that occurs naturally in a human community by a process of use, repetition, and change. It can take different forms, typically either a spoken language or a sign language. Natural languages ...

s; the phenomenon is studied within certain areas of

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

analysis, in particular

stylistics Stylistics, a branch of applied linguistics, is the study and interpretation of texts of all types, but particularly literary texts, and spoken language with regard to their linguistic and tonal style, where style is the particular variety of l ...

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

, and

semantics Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...

. *Literal language is the usage of

word A word is a basic element of language that carries semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguist ...

s exactly according to their direct, straightforward, or conventionally accepted meanings: their

denotation In linguistics and philosophy, the denotation of a word or expression is its strictly literal meaning. For instance, the English word "warm" denotes the property of having high temperature. Denotation is contrasted with other aspects of meaning in ...

. *Figurative (or non-literal) language is the usage of words in addition to, or deviating beyond, their conventionally accepted definitions in order to convey a more complex meaning or achieve a heightened effect. This is done by language-users presenting words in such a way that their audience equates, compares, or associates the words with normally unrelated meanings. A common intended effect of figurative language is to elicit audience responses that are especially emotional (like excitement, shock, laughter, etc.), aesthetic, or intellectual. The

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

philosopher

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

, and later the Roman rhetorician

Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician born in Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quin ...

, were among the early documented language analysts who expounded on the differences between literal and figurative language. A comprehensive scholarly examination of metaphor in antiquity, and the way its use was fostered by

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

's epic poems '' The Iliad'' and ''

The Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...

'', is provided by

William Bedell Stanford William Bedell Stanford (16 January 1910 – 30 December 1984) was an Irish classical scholar and senator. He was Regius Professor of Greek at Trinity College Dublin from 1940 to 1980, and served as chancellor of the University of Dublin from ...

. Within

literary analysis A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

, the terms "literal" and "figurative" are still used; but within the fields of cognition and linguistics, the basis for identifying such a distinction is no longer used.

Literal meaning

Literal usage confers meaning to words, in the sense of the meaning words have by themselves, for example as defined in a dictionary. It maintains a consistent meaning regardless of the

context In semiotics, linguistics, sociology and anthropology, context refers to those objects or entities which surround a ''focal event'', in these disciplines typically a communicative event, of some kind. Context is "a frame that surrounds the event ...

, with the intended meaning of a phrase corresponding exactly to the meaning of its individual words. On the other hand, figurative use of language (a later offshoot being the term ''

figure of speech A figure of speech or rhetorical figure is a word or phrase that intentionally deviates from straightforward language use or Denotation, literal meaning to produce a rhetorical or intensified effect (emotionally, aesthetically, intellectually, et ...

'') is the use of words or phrases with a meaning that does make literal sense but that encourages certain mental associations or reflects a certain type of truth, perhaps a more artistically presented one.

Figurative language

Uses of figurative language, or figures of speech, can take multiple forms, such as

simile A simile () is a type of figure of speech that directly ''compares'' two things. Similes are often contrasted with metaphors, where similes necessarily compare two things using words such as "like", "as", while metaphors often create an implicit c ...

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

hyperbole Hyperbole (; adj. hyperbolic ) is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. In rhetoric, it is also sometimes known as auxesis (literally 'growth'). In poetry and oratory, it emphasizes, evokes strong feelings, and cre ...

, and many others. ''Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature'' says that figurative language can be classified in five categories: resemblance or relationship, emphasis or

understatement Understatement is an expression of lesser strength than what the speaker or writer actually means or than what is normally expected. It is the opposite of embellishment or exaggeration, and is used for emphasis, irony, hedging, or humor. A part ...

, figures of sound, verbal games, and errors. A

is a comparison of two things, indicated by some connective, usually "like", "as", "than", or a verb such as "resembles" to show how they are similar. : Example: "His cheeks were ''like roses'', his nose ''like a cherry''.../And the beard on his chin was ''as white as the snow.''" (emph added)—Clement Clark Moore A

is a figure of speech in which two "essentially unlike things" are shown to have a type of resemblance or create a new image. The similarities between the objects being compared may be implied rather than directly stated. The literary critic and rhetorician,

I. A. Richards Ivor Armstrong Richards CH (26 February 1893 – 7 September 1979), known as I. A. Richards, was an English educator, literary critic, poet, and rhetorician. His work contributed to the foundations of New Criticism, a formalist movement in ...

, divides a metaphor into two parts: the vehicle and the tenor. : Example: "Fog comes on little cat feet"—

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg w ...

In this example, “little cat feet” is the vehicle that clarifies the tenor, “fog”. A comparison between the vehicle and tenor (also called the '' teritium comparitionis'') is implicit: fog creeps in silently like a cat. An

extended metaphor An extended metaphor, also known as a conceit or sustained metaphor, is the use of a single metaphor or analogy at length in a work of literature. It differs from a mere metaphor in its length, and in having more than one single point of contact be ...

is a metaphor that is continued over multiple sentences. : Example: "The sky steps out of her daywear/Slips into her shot-silk evening dress./An entourage of bats whirr and swing at her hem, ...She's tried on every item in her wardrobe."

Dilys Rose Dilys Rose is a Scottish fiction writer and poet. Born in 1954 in Glasgow, Rose studied at Edinburgh University, where she taught creative writing from 2002 until 2017. She was Director of the MSc in Creative Writing by Online Learning from 201 ...

Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia (or rarely echoism) is a type of word, or the process of creating a word, that phonetics, phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Common onomatopoeias in English include animal noises such as Oin ...

is a word designed to be an imitation of a sound. : Example: “Bark! Bark!” went the dog as he chased the car that vroomed past.

Personification Personification is the representation of a thing or abstraction as a person, often as an embodiment or incarnation. In the arts, many things are commonly personified, including: places, especially cities, National personification, countries, an ...

is the attribution of a personal nature or character to inanimate objects or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical figure. : Example: "Because I could not stop for Death,/He kindly stopped for me;/The carriage held but just ourselves/And Immortality."—

Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...

. Dickinson portrays death as a carriage driver. An

oxymoron An oxymoron (plurals: oxymorons and oxymora) is a figure of speech that Juxtaposition, juxtaposes concepts with opposite meanings within a word or in a phrase that is a self-contradiction (disambiguation), self-contradiction. As a rhetorical de ...

is a figure of speech in which a pair of opposite or contradictory terms is used together for emphasis. : Examples: Organized chaos, Same difference, Bittersweet. A

paradox A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true or apparently true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictor ...

is a statement or proposition which is self-contradictory, unreasonable, or illogical. : Example: This statement is a lie.

Hyperbole Hyperbole (; adj. hyperbolic ) is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. In rhetoric, it is also sometimes known as auxesis (literally 'growth'). In poetry and oratory, it emphasizes, evokes strong feelings, and cre ...

is a figure of speech which uses an extravagant or exaggerated statement to express strong feelings. : Example: They had been walking so long that John thought he might drink the entire lake when they came upon it.

Allusion Allusion, or alluding, is a figure of speech that makes a reference to someone or something by name (a person, object, location, etc.) without explaining how it relates to the given context, so that the audience must realize the connection in the ...

is a reference to a famous character or event. : Example: A single step can take you through the looking glass if you're not careful. An

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a Literal and figurative language, figurative or non-literal meaning (linguistic), meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic speech, formulaic ...

is an expression that has a figurative meaning often related, but different from the literal meaning of the phrase. :Example: You should keep your eye out for him. A

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

is an expression intended for a humorous or rhetorical effect by exploiting different meanings of words. : Example: I wondered why the ball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

Use of ''literally'' non-literally

Commentators have often noted (and sometimes criticized) how the word ''literally'' itself is very commonly now used non-literally to intensify the meaning of a sentence (as in "I literally died of laughter", where clearly the speaker did not die). Far from this being a recent development, however, this usage goes at least as far back as the 19th century.

Frances Brooke Frances Brooke ( Moore; 12 January 1724 – 23 January 1789) was an English novelist, essayist, playwright and translator. Hers was the first English novel known to have been written in Canada. Biography Frances Moore was born in Claypole, Li ...

's 1769 novel '' The History of Emily Montague'' was used in the earliest ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (OED) citation for the figurative sense of ''literally''; the sentence from the novel used was: "He is a fortunate man to be introduced to such a party of fine women at his arrival; it is literally ''to feed among the lilies''." This citation was also used in the OED's 2011 revision.

Standard pragmatic model of comprehension

Prior to the 1980s, the "standard pragmatic" model of comprehension was widely believed. In that model, it was thought the recipient would first attempt to comprehend the meaning as if literal, but when an appropriate literal inference could not be made, the recipient would shift to look for a figurative interpretation that would allow comprehension. Since then, research has cast doubt on the model. In tests, figurative language was found to be comprehended at the same speed as literal language; and so the premise that the recipient was first attempting to process a literal meaning and discarding it before attempting to process a figurative meaning appears to be false.

Reddy and contemporary views

Beginning with the work of Michael Reddy in his 1979 paper " The Conduit Metaphor", many linguists now deny that there is a valid way to distinguish between a "literal" and "figurative" mode of language. Nevertheless, work has continued on making such a distinction. For example:

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

The Word We Love To Hate. Literally.
from Slate Magazine

from Silva Rhetoricae

from Minerva – An Internet Journal of Philosophy. An account of how metaphor provides new perspectives, deepens understanding, and is a major tool of linguistic development. Semantics Conceptual distinctions