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I’ve asked about this years ago and people took it the wrong way, every answer was about being intellectually challenged or not understanding figurative language. I don’t mean that. I teach Logic at universities and I tell my students that in logic everything is to be taken literally once formalised. One good example of a phrase that means completely different things in figurative versus literal interpretations is “I’ve slept with my sister”. I use that example in class.

Is there a word for intelligent people taking everything at face value, literally, and refusing to even consider figurative meanings? I mean, a word, either noun or adjective, for the behaviour I’m trying to instill into my students?

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    I don't think there is an exact adjective for taking everything literally as a positive, intentional quality. There is literal-minded, but that tends to mean something like "obtuse, unimaginative".
    – stangdon
    Commented Mar 17, 2023 at 15:22
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    A literalist would be my choice. "I've slept with my sister" is ambiguous because it has two meanings but not due to figurative and literal. It has two literal meanings.
    – Lambie
    Commented Mar 17, 2023 at 15:56
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    See on ELU: What would be a word for describing a tendency to take the literal meaning of words above the accepted meaning?
    – Laurel ♦
    Commented Mar 17, 2023 at 16:15
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    @Lambie Do you mean that sleeping and having sexual intercourse are literally the same thing? I can assure you that’s not the case because I sleep every night! Sleeping means sleeping and drinking means drinking. Having sexual intercourse and drinking alcohol are figurative meanings.
    – user354948
    Commented Mar 17, 2023 at 16:48
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    @Lambie The only literal meaning of “to sleep” is to sleep. What’s your source for your claim that another literal meaning of “to sleep” is “to have sexual intercourse”? And if you think it is now a literal sense, surely you would have to admit that it started as non-literal. Probably as an euphemism.
    – user354948
    Commented Mar 18, 2023 at 4:27

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Literal-minded: Understanding words and statements only in the most basic and ordinary way and not having much imagination.

Literalist: A person who takes things literally, especially someone who adheres to a strict interpretation of a text or doctrine.

Please note that your example "I’ve slept with my sister" has two literal meanings. Neither of the two meanings are figurative as Lambie pointed out.

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  • The late, great Christopher Hitchens often warned that humanity needs to be saved from "literalists".
    – Jaime
    Commented Mar 22, 2023 at 11:16
  • Yes, two literal meanings, as I was the first to say. Usually, when an answer repeats what's in a comment, credit is given to the person who made the comment. But no worries.
    – Lambie
    Commented Mar 22, 2023 at 13:59
  • edited my answer to credit you. sorry about that!
    – Emre Bener
    Commented Mar 23, 2023 at 6:20
  • As explained in my OP, “unamiginative” is not one of the implications I want to include. Lambie was also the first to suggest “literalist”, which is the only good suggestion so far. Ok, I accept that English forms a different literal meaning in phrasal expressions. But I needed someone else to confirm given that Lambie’s example of figurative statement shows that he doesn’t understand what “figurative” means, and so I couldn’t trust his understanding of the antonym, “literal”.
    – user354948
    Commented Mar 23, 2023 at 13:46
  • @Jaime That guy thought the war in Irak was a good idea, so… humanity needs to be saved from people like him.
    – user354948
    Commented Mar 23, 2023 at 13:47

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