# Literally: Triumph of pet peeve over matter

Canonical page: https://dominiklukes.net/writing/2011-02-23-literally-triumph-of-pet-peeve-over-matter

The piece uses corpus evidence to argue that literally functions primarily as an intensifier and secondarily as a disambiguator.

Blog post · Metaphor Hacker · 23 February 2011

## Where it lives

- [Read it on Metaphor Hacker (metaphorhacker.net)](https://metaphorhacker.net/2011/02/literally-triumph-of-pet-peeve-over-matter/)

## About this item

- Type: Blog post
- Published: 23 February 2011
- Published in: Metaphor Hacker
- Language: English

Topics: linguistic-prescriptivism, linguistics, language-meaning, figurative-language.

## Related

- [The most ridiculous metaphor of education courtesy of an economics professor](https://dominiklukes.net/writing/2011-02-20-the-most-ridiculous-metaphor-of-education) (Blog post · 20 February 2011)
- [The brain is a bad metaphor for language](https://dominiklukes.net/writing/2011-03-11-the-brain-is-a-bad-metaphor-for-language) (Blog post · 11 March 2011)
- [Do science fiction writers dream of fascist dictatorships?](https://dominiklukes.net/writing/2011-03-13-do-science-fiction-writers-dream-of-fascist-dictatorships) (Blog post · 13 March 2011)
- [5 things everybody should know about language: Outline of linguistics' contribution to the liberal arts curriculum](https://dominiklukes.net/writing/2014-01-01-5-things-everybody-should-know-about-language-outline-of-linguistics-) (Blog post · 1 January 2014)
- [Linguistics according to Fillmore](https://dominiklukes.net/writing/2014-02-15-linguistics-according-to-fillmore) (Blog post · 15 February 2014)
- [What language looks like: Dictionary and grammar are to language what standing on one foot is to running](https://dominiklukes.net/writing/2014-11-05-what-language-looks-like-dictionary-and-grammar-are-to-language-what-) (Blog post · 5 November 2014)

Section: [Writing](https://dominiklukes.net/writing)