From a descriptive point of view, literally is seen
as ‘a case of semantic change in progress’ (Israel, 2002: 424),
exemplified through the shift from uses such as This word
literally means ‘water’ to This book literally
blew my mind. This process of change has been noticed
and commented on by language commentators and usage guide writers.
In other words, apart from being a case of change in progress,
literally is also a usage problem. Usage
problems are ‘features of divided usage’, or ‘instances of usage
that have attracted sociolinguistic controversy’ (Tieken–Boon van
Ostade, 2015: 57; cf. Kostadinova, 2018). The case of the word
literally, then, lends itself to an
investigation of the relationship between prescriptive approaches to
language use typically found in usage guides, and processes of
language variation and change, as I will do in this paper. As a
crucial aspect to this discussion, I will also address some of the
attitudes speakers hold towards the newer uses of
literally, as attitudes of speakers can help us
better understand why prescriptivism may or may not influence
language variation and change. In what follows, I will first discuss
the variant uses of literally found in present-day
English, and then consider findings on three perspectives on the
variation in the use of literally, viz. the ‘usage
guide’ perspective, the ‘actual use’ perspective and the ‘speakers’
attitudes’ perspective.