Literally

An article recently published in slate.com brought up how Merriam-Webster has recently updated the definition of the word "literally" to mean what many people consider to be its exact opposite: that is, "in effect" or "virtually." I know the alleged misuse of the word "literally" is something that bothers a lot of people, but I fully welcome Merriam-Webster's decision. Dictionaries are, after all, descriptive in nature; that is, they describe the way words are actually used as opposed to providing arbitrary words for the so-called correct usage of words.

 Mass Hysteria

But won't that eventually lead to absolute chaos and mass hysteria if we don't have some kind of rules governing the correct usage of words? After all, what if we all suddenly decided to use a word very differently than how it was used in the past? The problem is, this has happened before, and no one really seems to mind. Our word "silly" used to mean "blessed" or "innocent." When moral standards changed, holding on to older standards was considered "silly," and eventually the word took on a more negative connotation, meaning foolish. Our language has been changing for its entire existence without falling into the absolute chaos described above.

Then surely there must be some problem with "literally" now meaning the exact opposite of its literal meaning. Not so, actually. There is a certain class of words called autoantonyms (in fact, I wrote a blog post about them not too long ago).

Perhaps most importantly, I would argue that when people use the word "literally" when they mean "figuratively" they are, in fact, not using it incorrectly. At least not in the way people usually think. Merriam-Webster describe the usage thus:

It has been frequently criticized as a misuse. Instead, the use is pure hyperbole intended to gain emphasis.

That's right: hyperbole, or exaggeration. If I were to say a sentence like, "When I heard they added a new definition of 'literally' to the dictionary, I literally died," no one seems to have a problem with the fact that I said I died. No one says, "That's not true. You're not dead," or "That's not what the word 'died' means. You're misusing it." We're all okay with it because we all use hyperbole to express emotion and make our language more interesting. But therein lies my one complaint with the usage: saying that you died is already hyperbole. Putting the word "literally" in front doesn't add anything. It's tautology. I think that's why I never use the word "literally" in this sense anyway. If I simply say, "I died when I heard the news," it's sufficient.

Also, saying something like "When I heard the news, I figuratively died" sounds incredibly stupid.

On learning vocabulary

Is language basically grammar that you fill with vocabulary or is it vocabulary that is supported by grammar? Most of the time, language is taught the first way with a large emphasis on grammar despite the fact that the later is more accurate. If you think about it, you can form ungrammatical sentences that are still perfectly understandable (e.g., "I go store"). You can also form grammatically correct sentences that don't mean anything (a famous example being the sentence proposed by the famous linguist Noam Chomsky, "Green colorless thoughts sleep furiously.") In learning a language, you would benefit from putting your emphasis on learning vocabulary first.

Unfortunately, most of the time when vocabulary is taught, it is taught incorrectly. For example, vocabulary is often taught using themed lists (e.g., animals, food, colors). This is inefficient because when you learn vocabulary your brain is making a connection between the new vocabulary word and a concept. If all of the concepts you are learning are similar (e.g., apple, orange, pear), then your brain will have a harder time keeping track of them. This is especially true when learning opposites. At first your brain will store ideas like "hot" and "cold" in the same place. You'll remember that they both have something to do with temperature, but you'll get which is which confused. Overall, it is better when learning vocabulary to learn as disparate of ideas as possible at a time.

The French linguist Saussure developed the concept of signified-signifier; that is, every vocabulary term consists of a signified (the concept which it represents) and the signifier (the arbitrary sounds and letter combinations used to represent the signified). Perhaps a simpler way to think of this when it comes to vocabulary is the MEANING of the word and the FORM of the word. Generally, when learning a new vocabulary word one of the first things you do is look its meaning up in the dictionary. This is a mistake because it causes you to neglect learning the other part of the word: the signifier. Anyone who has learned a language has probably already experienced this where they know they've learned a word and maybe remember the first letter or two, but they don't remember the word. This is because they have not focused on learning the form first.

What I would recommend is that when you come across a word you don't know, resist the urge to look it up immediately. Instead, take some time to familiarize yourself with it. So let's say you were learning Spanish and came across a word like "esmero," (which I found in a song lyric for Seru Giran's "A los jovenes de ayer"). First learn how to spell it and pronounce it. Feel comfortable with it. Then go ahead and look it up. I am confident if you do it this way, developing the signifier before the signified, that it will stick in your head better, and you'll develop vocabulary faster.

The final step is to focus on learning the USAGE of the word by doing what language teachers call "chunking." That is, when we speak we generally use preset chunks of words instead of organizing individual vocabulary items in novel ways. Take the word "grocery" for instance. On its own, this word is pretty useless. If you were learning this in English, you'd probably need to know the chunks "grocery store,"  "go to the grocery store," and "buy groceries" to get any use out of it. What this means is that after you have learned the form and meaning of a word, you last need to focus on the usage of it. Ask yourself what words you will need to know in order to use this new word and add them to your vocabulary list. Practice using them orally and in writing. This will also, of course, require you to know some grammar at this point to support the vocabulary.