Issues with assumptions

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Are you really gobsmacked or being sarcastic? I won't go into a long explanation if no one wants me to.

I think I know what you mean but I would like to hear it anyway, examples would be good.

I am really gobsmacked; I seriously don't understand how that's possible. (Sorry for the lack of clarity.)

One time I accidentally drove my car into a well because I didn't see it. It was just that black thing sticking out of the ground that is in the tall grass, not one of those wishing wells. I learned my lesson the hard way to not drive into any tall grass. You never know what's in it. But anyway I said on this forum I drove into a well and my ex boyfriend said people on this forum probably think my car is inside the well. I asked him "what? Why would they think that, there are no wells that can fit a car inside it." My ex said I said I drove into a well. I told him I did, that is why I wrecked my car. He said I crashed into it. Uh what, isn't that the same thing but with an extra word? My ex's argument was there could be a well that is big enough to fit a whole car and aspies on this forum probably think that now. I think he means resavour. I don't know how to spell the word but I hope everyone here knows what I mean.

I think this is what socofautism was saying about unintentionally using figures of speech. I guess if someone crashed their car into a house, they should say "I crashed my car in the house" than saying "I drove into a house so now my car is totaled." :shrugs: But then I picture a car being inside a house crashing than a car going towards a house and hitting it and bam it's inside the house now but with the wall ruined.

Last edited by League_Girl on 21 Jun 2016, 3:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I don't know how to avoid using figurative speech. I have one very un-aspie like trait, and that is constantly using figurative speech, even when there is no need to. It's because I have trouble finding the right word, so I think in symbolic pictures, and then I just describe what I see. My husband tells me that people misunderstand me because they take what I say literally, when I meant it as a metaphor.

It bothers me because I know that although not all people with autism have trouble with metaphor, some do, and I don't want to write stuff that people don't understand.

Well...you yourself just said that you are "gobsmacked" which is an old non-blasphemous way of saying "godsmacked".

So you yourself just said in effect "God just smacked me". But you dont mean that you literally saw God lower his huge hand down from the clouds to dope slap your face. Lol!

Very good point, animalscrackers had just proved to herself how this can happen.

Amelia Bedelia is another good example about taking things literally and how people speak in figurative speeches all the time and not realize it. In the book it's amazing how Amelia interprets things I wouldn't have thought of. I can see how irritating it an be if someone was so literal like her. It would drive me insane and there would always be communication issues and anxiety because I wouldn't know how to say things and how things would be interpreted, it would be like walking on eggshells. But I am sure that person would be very frustrated too because they are aware of themselves being literal so getting mad at them and frustrated will also give them anxiety and make it worse for them. But Amelia has no awareness that she is very literal and takes literally everything literally. I even wonder how does she even function in life being that literal and how she made it through school and how she can even live a functional life. But it's a story so it's meant for humor and to make the audience laugh so it's not meant to be reality. I was labeled as being very literal and I have been told I am very literal but no way am I literal as she is and I have seen aspies online who are far more literal than I am because of what they interpreted.

I wonder how "look both ways" before crossing the street would be interpreted?

I did read a funny blog post online by Aspiewriter and she told her three year old autistic son how drinking milk will make him grow big and strong. He started to drink lots of milk and wanted more and more after each glass and he got upset that he wasn't growing big and strong. Another example there.

Huh, I thought it came from how shocked you would be if some ordinary mortal person smacked you in the face. Didn't know "gob" meant "God" and not "mouth".



No, but I was not unaware of the fact that I was using figurative language. What I don't understand is how a person can be unaware of using figurative language..... If someone told me I'd just said God smacked me in the face and questioned that or commented on it, I'd be confused because I didn't know the origin of the word and ask them to tell me when I said that or what my exact words were (or as close as they can remember) -- they would then tell me I said "gobsmacked" and I would realize the misunderstanding. (I might actually be able to piece it together even without knowing that it referenced God, rather than "gob" -- i.e. "mouth" -- can't say for sure..... but I do know that I wouldn't be so unaware of my own actual words that I would deny ever having said them and be unable to trace back the misunderstanding at all.)



I'm a "himself"....and no, I didn't. I was aware I was using figurative language.

Your example about driving your car into a well makes sense, but it makes me wonder if I don't really know what figurative language is because I wouldn't have thought "I drove my car into a well" would be considered figurative (even though when I first read it I pictured your car falling into the well).....I would just consider it to be ambiguous phrasing/word-choice.

Last edited by animalcrackers on 21 Jun 2016, 4:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Have you ever said something and the other person took it a different way because they were also literal? If so, that is how it happens. You didn't know you used a figurative language because you were not aware how it can be interpreted by a literal thinker.

Well in your mind you're saying "I am as shocked as i would be if someone smacked me in the face". But even then -though to you its not really figurative speech- you're unwittingly saying something figurative.

But on top of that you might also use other expressions that you are aware are figurative, but you still wouldnt give them a second thought: like "Im pissed off" (when actual urination is not involved), or "that's a long shot"(when you're not playing pool), or to rookie coworker "who do YOU think you are thinking you can call the shots[ also from the game of billiards]?". Some of those catchphrases you may know the origin of, and some not, but you would always be aware that each expression is FAR from being literal. But you still would not give it much thought. You would just use the expression.

Yes, I've had people interpret me literally when I wasn't intending to be literal, but that doesn't mean I was unaware that I was using figurative language. It just means I didn't know the other person would take my words literally. If they tried to talk to me about the specific, actual words I used, I wouldn't argue with them and say "I never said that" -- I would be aware of the words I used and aware of the fact that I didn't mean them literally when I said them.

In my mind I'm not saying anything -- I'm looking for a word to describe what I feel and I think of "gobsmacked" and others and I choose "gobsmacked". And to me it is figurative speech....I know it is when I think of the word. I don't see how it's unwitting.



Okay, but SocOfAutism said that people aren't aware of using figurative speech to the point where it's hard to talk to them about it, responding to the example the OP gave where a person was outright denying their exact words -- I can't understand how a person can be so unaware of their own words.

.....but in trying to think of how to explain what happens in my brain when I think about figurative language (I don't know if what you imagine happens is accurate or not because I don't really know what you imagine) I realized maybe I give more thought to the figurative aspect of figurative speech than non-visual thinkers because figurative language generally has very striking/bizarre visual meanings (or have only associational/vague meanings, based on patterns or even a single contextual association)....so maybe that's part of it (like other people don't do translation the way I do/at all....so how they think of words in the first place is very different)?

Aaaaand I've only just realized that my use of figurative language is probably why SocOfAutism thought maybe I was being sarcastic (I'm not that clever....I don't even know what the sarcasm would convey/how I would be using it).

But I still don't see how this would count as my being unaware of using figurative language -- just unaware of the possible significance of using figurative language in this context, and unaware of what prior knowledge and motives other people might attribute to me.

Someone might say "I could just kill my neighbor" in hyperbole because they are angry about their neighbor doing some minor thing. Then if you said "how do you plan on covering up murdering your neighbor?" the person might well say "WTF are you taking about? I never said I was gonna kill my neighbor?" because they might not even make the connection between what they said in hyperbole with the literal meaning you gave it.

Seriously? And this isn't listed as a recognised disability?

I mean, I use figurative speech, but if someone points it out, I'm perfectly capable of replaying my statement in my head, examining it, and seeing how it could be legitimately interpreted to mean something other than what I intended. This has always struck me as perfectly normal behaviour.

That some people apparently can't do this leaves me, like animalcrakers, gobsmacked.

The discussions of "gobsmacked" and "driving in to a well" show the people who made those statements have no difficulty in seeing alternate interpretations when those are pointed out to them. They certainly aren't getting angry and claiming they never said that — which is the issue raised in the OP.

If anything — and this may be an Asperger's thing — I find the multiplicity of meanings embedded in figurative speech to be a source of amusement. There's a verbal game I play with a couple of friends (who are also on the spectrum) in which my friend would say something, I would quickly scan through the range of possible legitimate interpretations, pick the the funniest one, and respond to that. They would then scan through the range of possible legitimate interpretations of what I said, pick the funniest one, and respond to that. Then I would do it again, as would they, and so on.

The result would be an apparent exchange of non-sequesters which are actually linked. We'd find this highly amusing. The goal was to see how many rounds we could keep it up; the longer the better.

Sometimes I would initiate, as in the example, sometimes they would. If the other party doesn't respond by doing the same or only by acknowledging the ambiguity of the statement, it means they don't want to play and the game stops there.

My experience is that most people (who aren't on the spectrum, as far as I know) just find this irritating. It never occurred to me that that might be incapable of seeing the multiple legitimate interpretations and thus, quite literally, not understand what we were doing.


I would definitely like an explanation of how this works.