If you’re a cool-headed, fair-minded, forward-thinking descriptivist like my colleague David Haglund, it doesn’t bother you one bit that people often use the word “literally” when describing things ...

Much has been made of the use, misuse and overuse of the word “literally.” Literally, of course, means something that is actually true: “Literally every pair of shoes I own was ruined when my ...

Steven Pinker, the famous linguist who’s not Noam Chomsky, doesn’t think using “literally” figuratively is all that bad. “The figurative use doesn’t mean the language is deteriorating,” he says in a ...

I’m all for the flexibility of language. Modern pronunciations don’t bother me, I think many common grammatical errors should be added to the rulebook, and I fully support letting words’ meanings ...

Figurative language provides an excellent way for people to communicate. It allows you to convey necessary information in an effective manner. Some of the things you may want to express could be ...