Subject
Nabokov's abuse of the word "literally"
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Date
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On March 26, the Boston Globe's regular Sunday column, "The Word," was
devoted to "adverbial hyperbole" featuring the word "literally," and
included this tantalizing reference: "Thoreau, Dickens, Louisa May
Alcott, and Vladimir Nabokov have also been fingered as _literally_
abusers." Curious, I asked the columnist, Jan Freeman, for evidence of
VN's guilt. She cited this example from Invitation to a Beheading, as
quoted in both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's
Concise Dictionary of English Usage: "And with his eyes he literally
scoured the corners of the cell." Below is a link to Freeman's column:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2006/03/26/a_literal_obsession/
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
Co-Editor, NABOKV-L
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archive/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
devoted to "adverbial hyperbole" featuring the word "literally," and
included this tantalizing reference: "Thoreau, Dickens, Louisa May
Alcott, and Vladimir Nabokov have also been fingered as _literally_
abusers." Curious, I asked the columnist, Jan Freeman, for evidence of
VN's guilt. She cited this example from Invitation to a Beheading, as
quoted in both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's
Concise Dictionary of English Usage: "And with his eyes he literally
scoured the corners of the cell." Below is a link to Freeman's column:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2006/03/26/a_literal_obsession/
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
Co-Editor, NABOKV-L
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archive/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu