literally

There was a very interesting piece on Radio 4's Today programme on monday, it was partly the inspiration for this blog and so I feel it is worth a comment.
The programme focussed on the word 'literally' and how it is being abused in the modern world. The presenters and contributors came with a selection of examples to emphasise how 'literally' can no longer be taken literally.


Nick Clegg- 'you see people literally in a different galaxy who are paying extraordinarily low rates of tax'. It must be noted that the man's political history may have resulted in major confusion about whether words do have a literal meaning. Also, being a 'deputy prime minister' already involves some linguistic complexity aside from being largely pointless.
A tastefully anonymous BBC news presenter- 'you'll be up against the Norwegians who are literally born on skis'. This would be a severe breach of health and safety regulations and therefore would be impossible in a Scandinavian country.
Rachel Stevens- 'my legs literally turned to jelly'. This medical phenomenon failed to make the news and has not since been reported in the Lancet or any of the respected medical journals. Stevens has since been seen with legs and is reported to have made a complete recovery from her gelatinous state.

These examples are a few picked from a multitude across many theatres of language - sport, music, politics, arts - and there may be few outposts where the word it safe. So, 'literally' no longer has a literal meaning, when used in general conversation, and its strength is being dismantled.
In that sense it is going the way of many of our other intensifiers. The latin probo is the core of our word 'probably' and so it means to prove by testing, to gain empirical proof. In the twenty-first century it has become a far more speculative term which deals not with possibility instead of proof.
'Quite' is another example, it used to mean 'absolutely and completely' and still retains some of that value in the phrase 'I am quite happy for you to roger my language senseless'. However it is far more recognisable as a way to moderate an expression, as in 'Liverpool is quite nice'.
In Old English the word 'soon' meant immediately, which is a value that anyone who has ever attempted to meet someone will attest that it has lost.
So, words lose their value, this is natural and no-one believed that Clegg was actually proposing galactic travel as a viable tax haven so is this important?

The word has been in use since 1769 and has a very specific meaning - it is a safe word. It is the one word in the language which can separate fact from the linguistic minefield of rhetoric, figurative language and all of the common phrases and poetic devices that we accept as meaning something different to their literal sense.
We are used to all sorts of fruity language and 'literally' is the only way that we can discriminate between fact and fiction. When its value is undermined we lose that ability.
It is also interesting to question why this has occurred. The natural weakening of intensifiers points to a continual need to emphasise and overemphasise our words. We are in a constant battle to be the loudest voice using the biggest phrases so 'he laughed' becomes 'he laughed his head off' and now, in a sick twist, 'he literally laughed his head off'.
Let's accept the value of the words we use, figurative language is brilliant and makes our phrases so much more interesting but the word 'literally', if used incorrectly, does damage the meaning of the sentence and the word itself. So why use it? Let's grow up a little bit and leave the phrase 'he was literally pissing himself' to refer to unfortunate accidents or weak bladders as opposed to someone having a giggle.
Calm down and carry on.