Linguist Says You Can Use ‘Like’ More. He’s, Like, Wrong.

TNR ^ | Marc Tracy

[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:

[grobdriver]

This use of “like” allows us to introduce not just what we said or thought, but how

Another blithering idiot.

I guaran-damn-tee you that if you speak this way at a job interview, you will be second (or more) runner up against someone who can, and does, speak standard English.

[PoloSec]

I watch all my TV on Netflicks and really enjoy British, Canadian and Australian shows...from what I have observed YES.

They have some overused words like Brilliant and No Worries and others I can’t recall at the moment, I have heard “No Worries” slipping into America.

[Starboard]

She had just graduated from St. Johns in Annapolis, a thoroughly Trivium oriented liberal arts college

**************
So what kind of career path did her liberal indoctrination qualify her to embark on? I mean, is she like working somewhere now?

[scrabblehack]

I used to be on a linguistics listserv....It may even have been ADS...I thought that “like” as a verbal crutch began with the Shaggy character on Scooby Doo, but someone corrected me....there were much earlier citations than that.
I don’t remember if they were American English or otherwise.

[Jack Hammer]

Modern linguistics is funny like that.

Thanks mostly to Chomsky, any half-witted dialect is now taken to be as ‘good’ as Shakespeare.

[Leep]

I totally agree with you but you like forgot “and stuff”

[Starboard]

“No problem” seems to be another overused (and thoughtless) phrase.

“You got it” is a close second.

[Starboard]

LOL!!!!

OMG, you nailed it dude! ;)

[dr_lew]

There's a famous remark in THE STRAWBERRY STATEMENT ( 1968 ), which I found pretty handily "the old-fashioned way" on page 101-102:

(We youths say "like" all the time because we mistrust reality. It takes a certain commitment to say something is. Inserting "like" gives you a bit more running room.)

James Simon Kunen is a year older than me.

[Political Junkie Too]

When I was younger, the linguistic crutch was "you know..."

People would, you know, insert it in, you know, the middle of sentences.

-PJ

[katana]

I am over 45 and I never comment or criticize anyone who intersperses “like” or even “you know” into their speech. I just quietly reduce my estimate of their intelligence.

[Bratch]

[Terry L Smith]

The inability to communicate one complete sentence of thought, without a stutter, an ‘uh’, a ‘like’, a ‘you know’, an ‘oh man’, an ‘omigawd’, a ‘see’, a ‘you dig’, or any kind of folk-loric interjections, is near an epidemic proportion, to the long-held idea of clear and concise communications between humans.

[pkmaine]

I am troubled by the phrase, “like literally” followed by something that is like literally not literal.

[Billthedrill]

So, I’m like, “if I hear that one more time my head will literally explode like a rogue H-bomb.”

[driftless2]

As an old codger who gets on sports forums to discuss events with what appears to me to be a much younger set of posters, I now believe dude has replaced he as a third-person, singular pronoun. As in "dude can really handle the ball" "dude played great last night" "dude was not responsible for his team losing" "dude is trash" and a lot other phrases.

[Rodamala]

In my line of work the way the word alignment is officially spelled is “alinement”... also, the distance between the rails of railroad track is not “gauge”... it is spelled “gage”.

I refuse to use THRU. It is improper.

[Rodamala]

Everytime some little post millenial yoga pants wearing cashier says “No Problem” instead of “You’re welcome” when I thank them, I want to stop and say... “Well, I am glad I have not inconvenienced you in any way, sweetheart... because I very well could have made this transaction a BIG PROBLEM. Consider yourself lucky.”

[vpintheak]

LOL! Whatever flotes your bote!
:-)

[Disambiguator]

Like, totally! Or not.

Whenever I hear someone say “totally awesome,” I question them. “Are you sure it’s not just partially awesome?”