Open AccessLiterally Speaking
Author(s) -
Liam McCarthy
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
lingua frankly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2333-6552
DOI - 10.6017/lf.v3i0.9278
Subject(s) - word (group theory) , linguistics , argument (complex analysis) , key (lock) , history of english , history , computer science , philosophy , medicine , computer security
This is a brief overview of the histoy of the word literally. The word literally has been at the heart of a debate between prescriptivist and descriptivist attitudes towards dictionaries and the English language in general so an analysis of the word's history unveils a number of key moments in the word's history that can help or hinder either side's argument. This controversial word's history also interestingly reveals some of the ways that the English language grows and changes over time.