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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
It is fun to watch when words that mean “almost†come to mean “entirely†and vice versa. The misuse of “literally†has been mentioned on this forum (at http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … p?pid=4282); my favorite of example of it was a description of a kid in a grocery store:
he was literally screaming his head off, so to speak.
As one pundit put it:
“I literally need people to stop using literally as if it literally is the word figuratively or virtually the same as virtually. That is, quite literally, Enough. Of. That.â€
I was pleased to find the following (from the Wall Street Journal on Nov 8th)—I see on the Internet that a lot of other people are reporting it too:
As Barack Obama shifts from a waking dream to the real world, he faces the near-virtual reality of climate change. He has to move decisively, Ian McEwan writes.
I.e. it has been hyped enough that its reality is now virtual? Climate is virtually changing, for real? It’s been going on long enough that it is nearly virtual by now?
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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It took me a while to figure out what he was really trying to say, but it sounds like it might be “near-certain reality.” So, clearly, “virtual” was a poor substitute.
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Yes, I think it is probably a kind of blend of “nearly certain(/inevitable/what-have-you)†with “virtually certain(/etc.)â€. Along with it I’ve heard (I think—can’t document it at the moment) “virtual reality†used to mean “virtual certaintyâ€, or even “certain realityâ€.
What do we mean by “virtual†anyway? An online dictionary suggests
1. Existing or resulting in essence or effect though not in actual fact, form, or name: the virtual extinction of the buffalo. 2. Existing in the mind, especially as a product of the imagination. Used in literary criticism of a text. 3. Computer Science Created, simulated, or carried on by means of a computer or computer network: virtual conversations in a chatroom.If something has the virtue of the real thing, who cares (in many cases and for many purposes) whether it has its essence? It may as well be the real thing.
All these mean something is not quite, but almost real, as if it were real, functionally equivalent to the real. It gets mixed together in my mind with the “literal†examples in that a figure of speech may overstate a quality, so that a way to affirm the presence of that quality in an extraordinary degree would be to say it is “virtually†there as described in the exaggerating language, or in a really extreme case, as exaggeratedly there as the figurative language would have it if taken literally.
Then of course there is the litotic impulse (how’s that for a nice obscure word?) to hedge something that you really think needs no hedging, so you sound impartial or something, saying it’s “practically†or “virtually†true when you think it is true (as I expect Ian McEwan thinks climate change is). But your real attitude is liable to (practically/virtually/nearly always) come through, and people will know that you mean (deep down inside) that the thing is completely true.
In any case, you turn semantic somersaults to try to say “It’s really really really real.†So it should be no surprise that people come to understand the words you used so that they mean “really reallyâ€.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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near-virtual? sort of almost real?
OK, my head hurts.
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A couple more head-bangers/forehead-slappers/headachers:
“Even doubling or tripling the amount of carbon dioxide will virtually have little impact, as water vapour and water condensed on particles as clouds dominate the worldwide scene and always will.†– . Geoffrey G. Duffy, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering of the University of Auckland, NZ.
it will drive them virtually almost to the edge of extinction
These are blends, quite obviously, and like other examples above they come about because virtually doesn’t quite mean “reallyâ€.
.
Is the climate-change/eco-disaster discussion scene a particularly good (i.e. “literal�) breeding ground for these usages?
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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