People who care about proper use of the English language find themselves aghast on a daily basis when they hang out on the internet. They are astounded at how many people don't know the difference between there, their, and they're. I used to be bothered by "crutch" words, as in too many "likes" between other words, or when people start every sentence with the words "basically" or "actually," although the latest incarnation is when people start talking by saying "I mean..." when that should be a reframing of a previous statement, and never be the first thing you say. Although the older I get, the less I am bothered by how other people use or misuse words.
Another thing that annoys some people is when someone says "literally" when they mean "figuratively." Maybe we should calm down about that because it's nothing new. In fact, dictionaries have added second definitions of "literally" to acknowledge its use as an intensifier. Authors such as Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Austen, and Charles Dickens have used it in this way in some classic novels. Read eight literally literary examples of this use of "literally" at Mental Floss. Maybe it will lower your blood pressure about the subject.
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When Joyce uses "literally" to mean "figuratively", he's not. In the example in the article, the narrator is echoing what Bloom has said. Same thing with Lily, the maid "literally run of her feet" in "The Dead". That's what Lily would say, not James Joyce.
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