Taking things literally!

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Eggman
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19 Mar 2010, 10:11 pm

well when people arnt literal with you, they run the risk of being misinterpreted

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sketches
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19 Mar 2010, 10:57 pm

Mdyar wrote:

League_Girl wrote:

Anything that doesn't make any sense I just assume it can't mean that. Then I don't understand.

Thats the way with myself too.

That's how I am, too.

Mdyar wrote:

Things that are implied or inferred have been my achilles heel.

What does this mean? Seriously.

Eggman is right. But then, I think there was a thread earlier in the WrongPlanet forums and someone (I don't remember) posted that she thought "depression" really meant feeling down in the dumps, while someone else posted that people don't understand the true meaning of depression. The person who learned/used the wrong definition was only doing it because she thought that's what it's supposed to mean; it's how everyone else around her uses it. (This is from my understanding, via observing the thread.) I think this is an example of how people use "figurative" phrases. They grow up with them and they are taught to use them the "figurative" way.

But when I learned meanings of words (even to today) I was taught the literal meaning, and then I couldn't make the connection because I wasn't taught the figurative meaning of words. I could give a lot of examples of this. All in all, I think it's the way we learn things: literal definition first. I could be wrong, of course. Does anyone here ever hear the figurative meaning of a word first and then learn the literal meaning?

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CockneyRebel
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19 Mar 2010, 11:08 pm

I have a hard time, telling whether somebody's joking or not. I can be quite unworldly, that way.

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League_Girl
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19 Mar 2010, 11:21 pm

sketches wrote:

Mdyar wrote:

League_Girl wrote:

Anything that doesn't make any sense I just assume it can't mean that. Then I don't understand.

Thats the way with myself too.

That's how I am, too.

Mdyar wrote:

Things that are implied or inferred have been my achilles heel.

I think that was me.

Of course. I once thought anymore meant for the rest of the day than forever or no more depending on the situation like "I am not talking to you anymore if you are going to be joking around." That would have meant I am not talking to you as long as you are joking around and not being serious. If you want me to talk to you, stop joking. Not mean I am never talking to you ever again if you don't stop joking.
I also learned the word cheap but never knew the dictionary definition of it.

_Square_Peg_
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19 Mar 2010, 11:21 pm

Yeah I sometimes take things literally too.
Example:
I went in for a job interview at Target. They asked me what I did before coming in to apply. I told them I woke up, ate breakfast, got dressed, and came over. What they meant to ask was what job did I have before applying to Target.
(btw, I did get the job & I somehow managed to keep it despite my lack of social skills.)

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19 Mar 2010, 11:25 pm

Oh yeah I also grew up hearing stupid dumb and idiot but never thought they meant low intelligence. People do misuse words they become terms.

sketches
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20 Mar 2010, 2:31 pm

League_Girl wrote:

Oh yeah I also grew up hearing stupid dumb and idiot but never thought they meant low intelligence. People do misuse words they become terms.

Oh, I know what you mean, and the same goes for a lot of degrading words, which were never meant to be degrading in the first place. So I think that even though we take things literally, we use the first definition(s) we learned--in context. There have been a few cases in my past when I heard the same word or phrase used in different context, so I looked it up in a dictionary or online. My dictionary at home helps me SO MUCH because it gives both the literal and figurative definitions!

P.S. League_Girl, did I get the situation right? (The one about the word depression.) I don't remember what the thread is called so I can't reread it.

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League_Girl
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20 Mar 2010, 3:02 pm

Pretty much.

Here is the thread.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt121686.html

It's on the front page. Me right?

lyricalillusions
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20 Mar 2010, 3:32 pm

League_Girl wrote:

Here is one I will never forget, my office clerk tells me to bring up six rollaways. I do that and I leave them there and go back to my work. At the end of the shift, he asks me why aren't they made and I tell him I don't know and he asks me why didn't I make them and I tell him I didn't know I was supposed to. He asked me how long had I been working there, and said I should know and he said why would he ask me to bring up six rollaways and not have me make them? I said maybe he had someone else in mind to do it. He wasn't happy with me all because he didn't tell me to make them but he said I didn't use my common sense. He told me when someone asks for a rollaway, someone is going to have to make them now before giving it to the guest and our boss might be asking why weren't they made. I felt stupid and bad. Where was my logic?
I decided next time he asks me to bring them up, I will ask if he wants me to make them or not. I decided to do the same with other office clerks if they tell me to bring some up. Ask if they want me to make them.

I can completely understand why you didn't make them. I would have done the same thing as you. Imo, if he had wanted them made, he should have let you know & not just assumed that you knew you were supposed to.

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sketches
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20 Mar 2010, 3:33 pm

League_Girl: Yes, that's the one; thanks.

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Bluefins
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20 Mar 2010, 3:56 pm

sketches wrote:

Mdyar wrote:

Things that are implied or inferred have been my achilles heel.

What does this mean? Seriously.

It means someone's weakness. From Greek mythology. When Achilles was a baby, his mother dipped him in a river that made him invulnerable - except for his heel, which she held him by. Naturally, later someone shot him in the heel and killed him.

I tend to take things literally too, but I'll stop to ask if something seems too weird and know most sayings, so that's usually not a problem. Worse is that I tend to laugh at literal / visual interpretations of things people say that's not meant to be funny, and if I try to explain, they don't find it funny.

League_Girl
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20 Mar 2010, 5:25 pm

lyricalillusions wrote:

League_Girl wrote:

I wonder if any NTs would have taken that literal? I haven't seen any of them saying yet they would have done the same.

MONKEY
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20 Mar 2010, 6:44 pm

Odin wrote:

I don't fall for blatant things anymore, but subtle nuance and sarcasm still gets me a lot.

"What!?! Really?"
"No goofus, it's a JOKE"

:roll:

I can't count how many times conversations have gone like that. :lol:

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Mdyar
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20 Mar 2010, 7:38 pm

Bluefins wrote:

sketches wrote:

Mdyar wrote:

Things that are implied or inferred have been my achilles heel.

What does this mean? Seriously.

^thank you
I'm no longer getting email replies on topic notifications and I have to manually check back. :roll:

Hotmail is screwed up!

Prosser
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20 Mar 2010, 8:42 pm

I don't take anything. Literal or otherwise.

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katzefrau
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12 Apr 2010, 2:49 am

when I was a kid I was confused by "do not pass" signs on rural roads (meant to keep people from driving into oncoming traffic lane to pass cars in their lanes where visibility is poor). I thought you weren't supposed to drive past the sign.

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