Literal and figurative language is a distinction in traditional systems for analyzing language. Literal language refers to words that do not deviate from their defined meaning. Figurative language refers to words, and groups of words, that exaggerate or alter the usual meanings of the component words. Figurative language may involve analogy to similar concepts or other contexts, and may involve exaggerations. These alterations result in figures of speech.
For example, the sentence "The ground is thirsty" is partly figurative: "Ground" has a literal meaning, the ground is alive and therefore it needs to drink and it feels thirst. Readers immediately reject a literal interpretation and confidently interpret the words to mean "The ground is dry," an analogy to the condition that would trigger thirst in an animal. However, the statement "When I first saw her, my soul began to quiver" is harder to interpret. It could describe infatuation, panic, or something else entirely. The context a person requires to interpret this statement is familiarity with the speaker's feelings. Lacking this context, a person can give the figurative words a provisional set of meanings, but cannot correctly interpret the figurative utterance until acquiring more information about it.
Figurative language departs from literal meaning to achieve a special effect or meaning. Techniques for doing so are listed in the article on Figures of speech.This can be found in many books and paragraphs. It is good to include both of these in stories and essays.
Read more about Literal And Figurative Language: Specific Examples
Famous quotes containing the words literal, figurative and/or language:
“It is not the literal past, the “facts” of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.”
—Brian Friel (b. 1929)
“Church neglect
And figurative use have pretty well
Reduced him to a shadow of himself.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“There’s a cool web of language winds us in,
Retreat from too much joy or too much fear.”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)