Meaning of "taking things literally"

Post Reply New Topic

I can be very dry, but I can also be silly to the point of childishness. I think I have just become better at knowing when it is appropriate - though I sometimes still get it very, very wrong.

I have the same problem, unless the person is smiling. In that case it is clear that I should not take things literally.

But sometimes I am joking myself, by taking things literally deliberately, but with a big smile. That smile indicates that I am not seriously taking things literally but I wanted to have some fun, caused by strange reactions to others. I haven't a clear example now. It is a way for me, to give some aroma to the day ("Giving aroma to the day" itself cannot be taken literally, but I actually wanted to make the day more enjoyable).

I get problems when I only hear the person talking, but I don't see him. Then it is harder to see whether he is joking, because there is no facial expressions (smiling/not smiling) that could give me some clues.

i answer rhetorical questions all the time. it is only later that it occurs to me they're rhetorical. i always thought a rhetorical question was followed by a statement like "that was rhetorical" and it's only recently i've realized often questions are rhetorical and no one tells you so.

i have a bigger problem with switching gears from one possible meaning of something to another, so i'm inclined to get stuck on whatever the first meaning is that i attribute to it, which can be a strange interpretation. for example someone will show me something they are holding and instead i will think they're showing me something about the way they're moving their hand, or the cuff on their shirt when actually it's a bug they're holding.

a good example from my childhood, of taking something literally or at least failing to understand the significance of it is this: in first grade my teacher asked me and another girl to read aloud to the class from a historical biography. we were seated in front of the class to do so. i spaced out while she was reading and then when asked to take over, started from the beginning. i understood it as a demonstration of our reading ability or a comparison between the two of us rather than grasping the idea that we were also reading for content.

Whenever my dad talks about politics or conspiracy, He'll say the weirdest stuff in conversations. I'll give a couple examples:

Yesterday when we had a discussion about schools not teaching cursive handwriting when suddenly the topic changed to foreign language in schools. His response was: "They should be teaching Mandarin Chinese in schools now since China owns us (he meant USA) now."
I decided it was time for a topic change and started talking about how great sign language was for students in special eduction who do not have the ability to communicate with their peers.

And when my dad and brother stared talking about the end of the world, I got scared and rambled on about how I didn't want to die young.

You see, I'm a christian and my dad considers himself a protestant (although not exercising his faith and going to church doesn't help much. Add to the equation being married to a catholic woman and believing in all this conspiracy jargen so much to brag about buying Earthquake insurance for his house on his Facebook page and I start to think he's completely lost.That or completely lost his marbles! )