For me I say that a truck with a cab longer than its bed is not a truck, but an SUV with an overgrown bumper.

  • KidDogDad@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    Former linguistics grad student here: The meaning of “literal” is changing, and sentences like “That guy is literally 500 years old” are correct.

    • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yes. Ling PhD here – after teaching for 10+ years, the thing most people consistently do not understand about language is: the dictionary does not define what words mean. Dictionaries at best are a representation of what words meant at one time, and those meanings change quickly and pervasively enough that there is constantly a non-zero* number of words for which the dictionary is already wrong.

      *in actuality it’s probably significantly higher than what is connotated by “non-zero”

      • geissi@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        1 year ago

        While I don’t support language prescriptivism just for the sake of it, there should be a common understanding what words mean.
        Otherwise language loses its function to accurately and effectively transport information, no?