Posted on 05/08/2015 1:48:06 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
If you are under the age of 45, chances are that at some point somebody over the age of 45 has condemned your alleged overuse of the word “like.” This person may or may not have said it politely. He or she may have been motivated by an altruistic desire to make you look respectable to others, a self-interested impulse to stop you from irritating them, or something in between. Either way, how we use “like” is one of the most gaping generational divides this side of those who ask, “Did you get my email?” (Of course we got your email—it’s an email, and you sent it!—we’ve just been busy.)
But a new essay by someone who is both a linguistics expert and, at least as importantly, over 45 suggests that “like” ought not to be maligned. “I had hit upon the answer to a question that had been puzzling me for years,” writes Allan Metcalf, an English professor at MacMurray College and—wait for it—executive secretary of the American Dialect Society. “Why is it that so many of us nowadays say ‘like’ (preceded by a form of ‘be’) to introduce something somebody said or thought?” (By “a form of ‘be,’” Metcalf means various conjugations of the verb “to be”: is, was, are, etcetera.)
The answer, according to linguistical science, is this:
This use of “like” allows us to introduce not just what we said or thought, but how. Instead of merely saying words, “like” with “be” allows us to enact the scene. And that, I think, is because it’s an extension of a longstanding use of “like” to indicate manner:
(Excerpt) Read more at newrepublic.com ...
must have been a burned out Beatnik retreaded to a new career
he’s like nuts, man
When I hear someone using ‘like’ with every other word, I like, want to slap them. But then I’m like, he’s just like, a product of our dumbed-down entertainment-driven culture. Did you see what I did there? I used a double-like. A like within a like, as it were. I’m crazy!
So he’s like “it’s OK to use ‘like’ whenever you want”, and I’m totally like “no way, dude!”, you know?
As if!
Is it the new, new N-word now?
So. I’m just guessing here, but I’m thinking this twit has an application into some UC college out in California for a teaching job.
For a liberal, you got to work it honey!, with all you got for all you can with all you know. Even if it IS horsesh!t.
You gotta stand up there and play it like you mean it. Dizzie Gillespie, Fats, or Louie! Work it like you stole it!
I like, like
The illiterate Hottentot hussein (he of the White Hut) can scarcely utter a pair of words without stringing a few “like” and “uhhs” to join them. Compare that to President Ronald Reagan who had a precise, crisp manner of speaking using only standard English, completely free of ghetto thug vocabulary.
A couple years ago the daughter of a college classmate stayed with us for a couple days. She had just graduated from St. Johns in Annapolis, a thoroughly Trivium oriented liberal arts college.
I was very disappointed with her overuse and misuse of ‘like’.
Another overused word of late “Actually”...
He is not just wrong; he is “like actually wrong”.
RE: Permission to use “like” from a linguist?
Of the English speaking countries out there... is this phenomenon of the overuse of the word ‘like’ purely an American thing? Or is it something that has caught on in the English-speaking world?
Of all the English speaking countries out there... is this phenomenon of the overuse of the word ‘like’ purely an American thing? Or is it something that has caught on in the English-speaking world?
It is an affliction of those who don’t have the mental capacity to keep up with the ‘need for speed’ and continuity out of their mouth. I guess it stems from a perception by the speaker that their audience gets distracted and disinterested quickly.
Basically
“Like” is the new “Uh, or Um”. As annoying as it is.
I had some interesting conversations with a linguits some years ago and he was theorizing the the way we spell words will change over time. So many words are spelled the way they are because they are based on the old latin words, and they will fade away.
Think about it, why is “Through” spelled that way? I work in CAD and we use “THRU” all the time. Just a simple example, but our texting culture will be changing things folks!
who me?
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