The adverb “figuratively” has become today an introductory, meaningless word. But it has a fairly accurate lexical meaning. To express oneself figuratively - this, as the dictionaries say, means "beautiful, allegorical, figurative."
Why do we need metaphors, comparisons, personifications?
Pathways in the language are called figures of speech. Thanks to them, the texts take an amazing look, literary works fascinate, catch the reader and do not let him go until the very end of the book. And this happens because the author writes figuratively. This is what makes people feel sympathy for heroes and characters. The metaphorical nature of the author’s language allows the imagination to create vivid images, personifications help to penetrate the beauty of nature. It is enough to compare the two descriptions to understand that the context, written figuratively - is a poetic picture that affects the soul, imagination.
Excerpt from a scientific article
The accumulation of vegetation, including woody, located in the subequatorial, equatorial and tropical zones, that is, in the area between 30 degrees south latitude and 25 degrees north latitude, is called tropical forest. In areas of the tropics, a zone with high atmospheric pressure is being created. This causes the circulation of air masses to the low pressure zone, that is, to the equator (Dry text, concretized by scientific explanations).
Artistic description
The beauty of the rainforest is difficult to describe for a person with a poor imagination. Figuratively speaking, this is a fabulous place where giant trees are like huge living fantastic creatures who are tired of their thousand-year life and have grown feet in the ground. But sometimes they begin to talk among themselves in a language incomprehensible to us, people. They say that this wind sways the branches somewhere above, under the skies, but this, of course, is not so! These giant giants wake up from their sound sleep, shake birds, monkeys and other animals from the arms-branches. And those, in turn, frightened by the unexpected movement, raise a cry: some are outraged, others cry hysterically, others laugh gaily at others (The text is written figuratively - this means that the author uses personifications, metaphors, comparisons).
Single root adjective
The meaning of the word “figurative” has a common root with this adverb. Consequently, the meaning of these words is similar. “Metaphorical, allegorical, eloquent” - this is what the given adjective means . Of course, the scope of its use is quite narrow. A specific subject or person cannot be figurative - it can only be a literary work, text, speech, manner of presentation, and the like.