{"id":100864,"date":"2013-08-18T02:10:10","date_gmt":"2013-08-17T20:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=100864"},"modified":"2013-08-19T15:34:49","modified_gmt":"2013-08-19T10:04:49","slug":"how-language-is-literally-losing-its-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-language-is-literally-losing-its-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"How Language Is Literally Losing Its Meaning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Oxford English Dictionary has accepted a new definition for the word literally \u2013 and it&#8217;s not the only word changing beyond recognition. It&#8217;s enough to, like, make one despair<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It is literally the biggest semantics story of the week: the informal use of the word &#8220;literally&#8221; \u2013 as a term for emphasis when a statement isn&#8217;t true \u2013 has been included as a definition in the Oxford English Dictionary.Writers have responded, protesting very convincingly that we are breaking up the English\u00a0language\u00a0\u2013 we are like so many monkeys tossing around a Ming vase, the richest cultural property we possess.<\/p>\n<p>Read more in <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/shortcuts\/2013\/aug\/14\/language-literally-losing-its-meaning\">the Guardian<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-language-is-literally-losing-its-meaning\/meanings2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-100865\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-100865\" title=\"meanings2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/meanings2-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"345\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/meanings2-001.jpg 460w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/meanings2-001-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":100865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,3402],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-editors-choice"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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