🚀 go-pugleaf

Josh Turner <shua@umich.edu> wrote:
> 
> Scott M. Kozel wrote:
>
> > Highway patrolmen said that the car literally painted itself onto
> > the wall.

> > "The first trooper that examined the wreckage was so sickened by what he
> > saw that he vomited his guts out".
> >
> > That taken literally would suggest that his guts literally came out,
> > which they didn't, only the contents of his stomach came out.  But the
> > term "vomit your guts out" is an English idiom, which depicts violent
> > regurgitation.
> 
> I have no problem with idioms, or colorful figures of speech. I
> certainly don't beleive that everything
> that everyone says should be taken literally. However, here the officer,
> by using the word "literally", was suggesting that this statement
> *should be* taken literally. Had the officer simply said "The car
> painted itself onto the wall," that would have been fine, as a
> figurative, graphic illustration of the violence of the event.

You misspelled "believe".

I think you should blame me, not the cop.  The word "literally" was (I'm
almost sure) MY embellishment to the article.

But you wanted to blame the cop, didn't you?

And with all that they had been through (after all one of them spewed),
can they be forgiven if one of them made a slight English mistake?

The world wonders.

> Likewise,
> had he said "He vomited his guts out--literally," I would have taken
> issue with that, because presumably the officer did not actually eject
> his intestines through his mouth.

I hope not.

> Using the word "literally" is a signal that what it refers to *is not* a
> figure of speech, or a hyperbole, or an exaggeration, or a metaphor, or
> a simile, or anything else; it is a signal that the event described,
> despite sounding incredible, actually occurred. To whit: "He ate 23
> hamburgers--literally", or "He is literally the worst golf player I have
> ever seen," or "you are literally the only person I know that doesn't
> like the way the Contour handles."

Relax.

What's wrong with having some fun with the English language?

-- 
Scott M. Kozel    "The Virginia Highwayman"   kozelsm@richmond.infi.net  
Highway and Transportation History Websites  
Virginia/Maryland/Washington D.C. http://www.richmond.infi.net/~kozelsm
PHL area http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Campus/5961/pennways.html