The AS perspective on "figures of speech"

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When I define a figure of speech for my teen AS son, he listens eagerly like I'm telling him a secret code. And he learns each expression ... repeats the definition to me the next time it comes up as though he is translating from a foreign language.

Could you please help me understand the AS perspective that leads to literal interpretation of figures of speech? Maybe I could be more helpful if I understood a bit more.

Thanks!

-- MsDenver1

When I talk to friends or family I myself take every word that they say very,very literally.
Always have in my life don't know really why but it maybe hard wired for me to do so.
For 42 years of life I have be doing this in my life.
I have not been able to really change it either.
It is the way I am and I accept it for what it is.

I had to think about this overnight before responding.

My 12 year old react as your child does...like learning a foreign language or code.

And I think I can see why. Some "code" phases make sense but many more really do not...."spooning" in bed I can explain, "raining cats and dogs" I can not.

I mean, I can explain what they mean but not why we use the phase.

The ASD brain just seems super logical in ways.

BeeBee

Sometimes figures of speech can be guessed as they are direct metephors, and some are just entirely foreign. I agree with kolabri- it's not a different process; it's a process we're lacking or deficient in.

Both my AS son and I have this problem. I have learned (as facts) what some figures of speech are and what they really mean. I can not figure out the meanings for myself. I agree that words mean what they mean and to say that it is raining cats and dogs means that cats and dogs are falling from the sky. At 33 I have learned to accept that people mean something different by this but they are wrong :D

Y

He is learning several languages, but there is logic in only one.
When people in Glasgow said things like "I'll take my hand off your face", it caused me no end of confusion. Even now I can atke a good guess at where to fit things in, but don't understand properly. I loved the BBC as a child, they made sense.

Step 1
I hear the confusing expression.

Step 2
I take it seriously, and think how to respond.

Step 3
If I discover it is a figure a speech, I try to remember what it means

Step 4
Remembering...remembering...OH!


Step 5
Understanding. By this point, most peolpe have just finished laughing if it's some sort of joke. If I don't remember, then I'm bugged by it until someone explains it to me.

Figures of speech drove me mad when I was younger, I took every one of the literly from "Looks can kill" to "I don't drink" (Which isn't really a figure of speech but confused me nontheless). Every time I'd hear a new one I'd ask someone, usually my Mum, what they meant. Then over time I built up a database of figures of speech. I had a bit of an obsession with plaing with words anyway so that probably helped me remember, if I had no interest I probably would still be as confused today. I still come across ones I don't get occasionally but I'm better than I used to be anyway.

I have an easy time understanding figures of speech once they've been learned. It just depends on what's the first interpretation which comes into my mind. Oftentimes, that interpretation is more concrete. Especially if a concrete interpretation of that is used more often IRL than the figurative saying.

For instance, just yesterday my mother used the phrase "fair-haired child" to describe an old friend of mine vs. his troublemaker brother. But I said that the troublemaker brother was the blond one and my friend had brown hair. And then she said she meant it figuratively as though he were the "golden child". And I said "Ohhhhhhh" and got it right away.

As for myself, I don't find as much difficulty in understanding such a stretch. But I usually go to concrete interpretations first and foremost if the figure of speech isn't a more common one which I am used to.

But I know there's other Aspies who just don't get figures of speech at all. I'm not one of them. I just lean toward the concrete more heavily.

I know that when I was younger, I had trouble understanding the concept of figures of speech, and it took me longer to pick up on them than it did for most of my peers. But, now it's not a problem anymore for me - although in all fairness, part of it may just be that I know all the usual figures of speech. Still, I often now find myself frustrated when I'm talking to another Aspie and they don't understand the figures of speech that I use without even thinking about them. Don't get me wrong, I can't fault them for it, and I don't take my frustration out on them, but it still does put a bit of a burden on me.

Does anyone else feel like the term "head over heels" might be the result of verbal dyslexia or something on the part of the person who coined the phrase?

A lot of what I have done in the past is listen carefully for them (or read carefully), ask what they mean (usually from a trusted adult) and memorize this information.

"Could you please help me understand the NT perspective that leads to nonliteral interpretation of figures of speech? Maybe I could be more helpful if I understood a bit more.
It is the way languages work. Words have meanings, you know. If you use words to mean something different than they say, you are really talking in a different/foreign language as a different code base is used."

My family is from the south, where part of the culture is the notion of "flavor". Gumbo is flavored with file' and other certain spices. Church is flavored with certain styles of music. And conversation is flavored with figures of speech and sometimes with cuss-words.

Some folks are completely happy eating eggs with no extra flavor. Some folks need to add salt, pepper, and cayenne hot sauce or those eggs are just not tasting right.

That's my best explanation of why NTs use nonliteral interpretation of figure of speech. It's flavor for the conversation.