spoiler
alt text: A two panel comic. In the first panel there are two buttons labeled “I don’t believe in prescriptivism” and “‘Literally’ cannot mean ‘figuratively’”. A finger hovers between the buttons. In the second panel, the finger’s owner is sweating and wiping his brow, unable to decide.
You know how I said language doesn’t work properly without context? You don’t have to ask for context when someone tells you something. I struggle to think of a situation where it isn’t obvious in the moment whether someone means “literally” literally or figuratively. For example, “I’m literally suffocating.” Did you actually think about the reality of a situation where someone tells you this? You can just look at a person and know whether they’re struggling to breathe.
I admit that if someone sends a text that reads “I’m literally suffocating” without any context, then that’s not very useful, but that just works further to my point that context matters.
Exactly.
Have some reading glasses 👓
I never denied that context matters, my point is that few words are that ambiguous without context.