Something said in jest, quizzically, sarcastically, as a roundabout way of asking a question, may be taken as a literal statement of fact.

They were a literal statement of truth.

A second method of emotional branding is making a literal statement about a product and its association to emotion.

Interesting that so many posters interpret a poem as a literal statement; itÂ's almost as if they have never read a poem before.

It was a literal statement of fact.

A metaphor which is obtrusive or vague may well undermine, or at least obscure, a sonnet's literal statement.

That literal statement will not usually be abandoned, but it will have to co-exist with a potentially frustrating metaphoric competition.

Given how annoyed she's going to be over this entire little adventure of ours, I think that may be a literal statement.

For these sculptors, the concern was not with a literal statement of movement but with the sensation of actual movement.

Many figures of speech are not meant to be understood exactly as they are said: they are not literal, factual statements.