Literaali

Literaali, meaning "literal" in Finnish, denotes interpretation or representation that is taken at face value, without figurative force or implied meaning. In language use, a literal reading focuses on the conventional or dictionary sense of words rather than metaphor or irony.

In linguistics and semantics, literal meaning contrasts with figurative or idiomatic meaning. Context, tone, and cultural knowledge influence whether a sentence is intended literally. Examples: "The sky is blue" is typically understood literally; "It's raining cats and dogs" is idiomatic and not meant literally.

In computing, a literal (or literal value) is a value written directly in source code. Numeric literals include 42 and 3.14; string literals include "Hello, world"; boolean literals include true and false; character literals include 'A'. Many languages support hexadecimal (0x2A) and binary (0b1010) forms, as well as escape sequences such as \n.

The term derives from Latin literalis, meaning pertaining to letters, and entered Finnish via historical contact with European languages. In programming, the concept is central to parsing and evaluation, providing fixed values that form the building blocks of expressions.