[Lexicog] Digest Number 419
Simon Wickham-Smith
wickhamsmith at GMX.NET
Tue Sep 6 17:41:25 UTC 2005
yo!
Re like like - check out, dudes and dudettes, the use of the verb to
go in the sentence "I go all weak at the knees when I see her". The
speaker clearly is in no position to go anywhere, yet it's an
acceptable use of metaphorical language. 'He's going mad", too, is
another example. We use this verb in many many situations in which
to become would be more literal. As David says, here it seems that
mimesis is becoming a more common descriptive tack. It seems, sadly,
that it's just the fear of young persons and their vulgar corruption
of our beautiful and rich tongue which is at work here.
l8r -
Si
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> There are 6 messages in this issue.
>
> Topics in this digest:
>
> 1. Dissertation on "like"
> From: Rudolph C Troike <rtroike at u.arizona.edu>
> 2. RE: Dissertation on "like"
> From: "Fritz Goerling" <Fritz_Goerling at sil.org>
> 3. "like"
> From: Chaz and Helga Mortensen <chaz_mortensen at sil.org>
> 4. Re: "like"
> From: David Tuggy <david_tuggy at sil.org>
> 5. RE: Dissertation on "like"
> From: "Fritz Goerling" <Fritz_Goerling at sil.org>
> 6. Re: Dissertation on "like"
> From: fieldworks_support at sil.org
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 22:25:20 -0700 (MST)
> From: Rudolph C Troike <rtroike at u.arizona.edu>
> Subject: Dissertation on "like"
>
>
> (In case you are not a regular reader of the Linguist List)
>
> If you, like, are, like, one of those, like, who, like, use, like,
> "like"
> like before and like after every other, like, word, or if this
> practice
> drives you up the wall, you may be surprised and interested to know
> that
> it has, like, fostered a growing body of linguistic research, of which
> this is, like, the, like, latest. Lexicographical entries (e.g.
> OED) may
> have to be, like, revised.
>
> Rudy Troike
>
> * *
>
> LINGUIST List 16.2552
> Mon Sep 05 2005
> _________________________________________________________________
>
> From: Alexandra D'Arcy <alex.darcy [address-marker.gif]
> utoronto.ca>
> Subject: Like: Syntax and Development
> Institution: University of Toronto
> Program: Department of Linguistics
> Dissertation Status: Completed
> Degree Date: 2005
> Author: Alexandra D'Arcy
> Dissertation Title: Like: Syntax and Development
>
> Dissertation Director(s):
> Sali Tagliamonte
>
> Dissertation Abstract:
> Discourse LIKE, as in (1), is one of the most salient features of
> present-day vernacular English.
>
> (1) a. LIKE, Carrie's LIKE a little LIKE out-of-it but LIKE
> she's the
> funniest. (3/T/f/18)
> b. Well, you just cut out LIKE a girl figure and a boy figure.
> (N/8/f/75)
>
> It is overtly stigmatized and associated with adolescents, where
> it is
> perceived as a crutch for lexical indecision (e.g., Diamond 2000;
> Siegel 2000). In the literature, LIKE is sometimes characterized
> as a
> 'meaningless interjection' (OED) that can be used 'grammatically
> anywhere' (Siegel 2002:64).
>
> Descriptions such as these suggest that LIKE is unconstrained, yet
> language, despite inherent variability, is rule-governed (see also
> Underhill 1988; Andersen 2001).
>
> LIKE has received much attention in the pragmatic literature (e.g.,
> Schourup 1983; Andersen 1997 et seq.), but it has never been
> investigated from a variationist perspective. Consequently, this
> dissertation presents an accountable analysis of LIKE in a large
> corpus
> of contemporary English. The hypothesis developed in this work
> is that
> LIKE is not random, but interacts with syntactic structure in
> regular
> and predictable ways. To address this issue, the variable
> context is
> circumscribed according to structural criteria and the analyses are
> embedded within current Minimalist Theory (e.g., Chomsky 1995 et
> seq.). Over 20,000 structurally defined contexts are examined,
> comprising data from 97 speakers between the ages of 10 and 87.
>
> This method reveals that LIKE is 1) highly constrained by the
> syntax
> and 2) occurs in specific positions among speakers of all ages.
> Indeed,
> examination of language-internal constraints reveals that the
> community
> shares a single variable grammar for LIKE (Poplack & Tagliamonte
> 2001).
> This feature is shown to have developed gradually and
> systematically,
> arriving at its current state through regular processes of language
> change. Using the grammaticalization models proposed by Traugott
> (1997
> [1995]) and Brinton (forthcoming), it is argued that after
> initially
> developing as a discourse marker, where it occurs clause-
> initially and
> links sequences of dialogue (Fraser 1988, 1990), LIKE then
> begins to
> enter syntactic structure, spreading to one maximal projection
> at a time.
> _________________________________________________________________
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 11:17:56 -0000
> From: "Fritz Goerling" <Fritz_Goerling at sil.org>
> Subject: RE: Dissertation on "like"
>
> Howdy, Rudy,
>
> This adolescents' use of "like" is like German adolescents' use of
> "irgendwie" (= somehow).
> It is not just a "crutch for lexical indecision" (Diamond, Siegel, see
> below) but also a sign
> of a poorly developed vocabulary which ranges from "cool" (or
> whatever the
> "in" terms are)
> to its opposite "uncool" (or whatever the "in" terms are).
>
> Fritz Goerling
>
>
>
>
>
> (In case you are not a regular reader of the Linguist List)
>
> If you, like, are, like, one of those, like, who, like, use,
> like, "like"
> like before and like after every other, like, word, or if this
> practice
> drives you up the wall, you may be surprised and interested to
> know that
> it has, like, fostered a growing body of linguistic research, of
> which
> this is, like, the, like, latest. Lexicographical entries (e.g.
> OED) may
> have to be, like, revised.
>
> Rudy Troike
>
> * *
>
> LINGUIST List 16.2552
> Mon Sep 05 2005
> _________________________________________________________________
>
> From: Alexandra D'Arcy <alex.darcy [address-marker.gif]
> utoronto.ca>
> Subject: Like: Syntax and Development
> Institution: University of Toronto
> Program: Department of Linguistics
> Dissertation Status: Completed
> Degree Date: 2005
> Author: Alexandra D'Arcy
> Dissertation Title: Like: Syntax and Development
>
> Dissertation Director(s):
> Sali Tagliamonte
>
> Dissertation Abstract:
> Discourse LIKE, as in (1), is one of the most salient features of
> present-day vernacular English.
>
> (1) a. LIKE, Carrie's LIKE a little LIKE out-of-it but LIKE
> she's the
> funniest. (3/T/f/18)
> b. Well, you just cut out LIKE a girl figure and a boy
> figure.
> (N/8/f/75)
>
> It is overtly stigmatized and associated with adolescents,
> where it is
> perceived as a crutch for lexical indecision (e.g., Diamond 2000;
> Siegel 2000). In the literature, LIKE is sometimes
> characterized as a
> 'meaningless interjection' (OED) that can be used 'grammatically
> anywhere' (Siegel 2002:64).
>
> Descriptions such as these suggest that LIKE is unconstrained,
> yet
> language, despite inherent variability, is rule-governed (see
> also
> Underhill 1988; Andersen 2001).
>
> LIKE has received much attention in the pragmatic literature
> (e.g.,
> Schourup 1983; Andersen 1997 et seq.), but it has never been
> investigated from a variationist perspective. Consequently, this
> dissertation presents an accountable analysis of LIKE in a
> large corpus
> of contemporary English. The hypothesis developed in this work
> is that
> LIKE is not random, but interacts with syntactic structure in
> regular
> and predictable ways. To address this issue, the variable
> context is
> circumscribed according to structural criteria and the
> analyses are
> embedded within current Minimalist Theory (e.g., Chomsky 1995 et
> seq.). Over 20,000 structurally defined contexts are examined,
> comprising data from 97 speakers between the ages of 10 and 87.
>
> This method reveals that LIKE is 1) highly constrained by the
> syntax
> and 2) occurs in specific positions among speakers of all
> ages. Indeed,
> examination of language-internal constraints reveals that the
> community
> shares a single variable grammar for LIKE (Poplack &
> Tagliamonte 2001).
> This feature is shown to have developed gradually and
> systematically,
> arriving at its current state through regular processes of
> language
> change. Using the grammaticalization models proposed by
> Traugott (1997
> [1995]) and Brinton (forthcoming), it is argued that after
> initially
> developing as a discourse marker, where it occurs clause-
> initially and
> links sequences of dialogue (Fraser 1988, 1990), LIKE then
> begins to
> enter syntactic structure, spreading to one maximal projection
> at a
> time.
> _________________________________________________________________
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
> --
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>
> a.. Visit your group "lexicographylist" on the web.
>
> b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
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> [This message contained attachments]
>
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>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 07:22:17 -0500
> From: Chaz and Helga Mortensen <chaz_mortensen at sil.org>
> Subject: "like"
>
> I'm like,
>
> "There's like another language with a phenomenon like this besides
> English?! Hello?!!
>
> -Chaz
>
> En serio: I first heard this when seeing an old James Dean movie from
> the late 50s.
>
> On Sep 6, 2005, at 6:17 AM, Fritz Goerling wrote:
>
>
>> Howdy, Rudy,
>>
>> This adolescents' use of "like" is like German adolescents' use of
>> "irgendwie" (= somehow).
>> It is not just a "crutch for lexical indecision" (Diamond, Siegel,
>> see
>> below) but also a sign
>> of a poorly developed vocabulary which ranges from "cool" (or
>> whatever
>> the "in" terms are)
>> to its opposite "uncool" (or whatever the "in" terms are).
>>
>> Fritz Goerling
>>
>
>
>>>
>>> Rudy Troike
>>>
>>> * *
>>>
>>> LINGUIST List 16.2552
>>> Mon Sep 05 2005
>>> _________________________________________________________________
>>>
>>> From: Alexandra D'Arcy <alex.darcy [address-marker.gif]
>>> utoronto.ca>
>>> Subject: Like: Syntax and Development
>>> Institution: University of Toronto
>>> Program: Department of Linguistics
>>> Dissertation Status: Completed
>>> Degree Date: 2005
>>> Author: Alexandra D'Arcy
>>> Dissertation Title: Like: Syntax and Development
>>>
>>> Dissertation Director(s):
>>> Sali Tagliamonte
>>>
>>> Dissertation Abstract:
>>> Discourse LIKE, as in (1), is one of the most salient features of
>>> present-day vernacular English.
>>>
>>> (1) a. LIKE, Carrie's LIKE a little LIKE out-of-it but LIKE she's
>>> the
>>> funniest. (3/T/f/18)
>>> b. Well, you just cut out LIKE a girl figure and a boy
>>> figure.
>>> (N/8/f/75)
>>>
>>> It is overtly stigmatized and associated with adolescents, where
>>> it is
>>> perceived as a crutch for lexical indecision (e.g., Diamond 2000;
>>> Siegel 2000). In the literature, LIKE is sometimes characterized
>>> as a
>>> 'meaningless interjection' (OED) that can be used 'grammatically
>>> anywhere' (Siegel 2002:64).
>>>
>>> Descriptions such as these suggest that LIKE is unconstrained,
>>> yet
>>> language, despite inherent variability, is rule-governed (see
>>> also
>>> Underhill 1988; Andersen 2001).
>>>
>>> LIKE has received much attention in the pragmatic literature
>>> (e.g.,
>>> Schourup 1983; Andersen 1997 et seq.), but it has never been
>>> investigated from a variationist perspective. Consequently, this
>>> dissertation presents an accountable analysis of LIKE in a large
>>> corpus
>>> of contemporary English. The hypothesis developed in this work is
>>> that
>>> LIKE is not random, but interacts with syntactic structure in
>>> regular
>>> and predictable ways. To address this issue, the variable context
>>> is
>>> circumscribed according to structural criteria and the
>>> analyses are
>>> embedded within current Minimalist Theory (e.g., Chomsky 1995 et
>>> seq.). Over 20,000 structurally defined contexts are examined,
>>> comprising data from 97 speakers between the ages of 10 and 87.
>>>
>>> This method reveals that LIKE is 1) highly constrained by the
>>> syntax
>>> and 2) occurs in specific positions among speakers of all ages.
>>> Indeed,
>>> examination of language-internal constraints reveals that the
>>> community
>>> shares a single variable grammar for LIKE (Poplack & Tagliamonte
>>> 2001).
>>> This feature is shown to have developed gradually and
>>> systematically,
>>> arriving at its current state through regular processes of
>>> language
>>> change. Using the grammaticalization models proposed by Traugott
>>> (1997
>>> [1995]) and Brinton (forthcoming), it is argued that after
>>> initially
>>> developing as a discourse marker, where it occurs clause-
>>> initially
>>> and
>>> links sequences of dialogue (Fraser 1988, 1990), LIKE then begins
>>> to
>>> enter syntactic structure, spreading to one maximal projection at
>>> a time.
>>> _
>>>
>
> [This message contained attachments]
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2005 07:54:06 -0500
> From: David Tuggy <david_tuggy at sil.org>
> Subject: Re: "like"
>
> You sound almost fierce about it, Fritz!
>
> Some of you may have seen the newspaper column where the author gets
> curious about the main speech verbs of English, namely "go", "be
> like",
> and "be all". She winds up asking George Lakoff about it and gets a
> verbose and not totally comprehensible discourse in reply, and ends
> the
> article rather abruptly with the sentence: "And so I go like all,
> 'Oh.'"
>
> I've wanted a copy of that column, if by chance anyone has it.
>
> En serio: I think switching to these verbs from verbs like "say" is a
> symptom (/facilitator?) of a cultural change from a worldview in which
> truth and factuality are desirable to one where mimesis and image are
> more valued. It is not so important *what* was said as *how* it was
> said. The complements of these verbs very often do not even purport to
> be quotes of actual words, but rather attempt to convey, often via
> gesture, facial expression, body language, intonation, etc., the
> emotional import of what was said, or not said as the case may be. I'm
> sure many of you have heard, as I have, things like this: "And she's
> all, 'WhAAAAt? That is so RANDOM!' Of course she didn't SAY anything,
> but …."
>
> --David T.
>
> Chaz and Helga Mortensen wrote:
>
>
>> I'm like,
>>
>> "There's like another language with a phenomenon like this besides
>> English?! Hello?!!
>>
>> -Chaz
>>
>> En serio: I first heard this when seeing an old James Dean movie from
>> the late 50s.
>>
>> On Sep 6, 2005, at 6:17 AM, Fritz Goerling wrote:
>>
>> Howdy, Rudy,
>>
>> This adolescents' use of "like" is like German adolescents'
>> use of
>> "irgendwie" (= somehow).
>> It is not just a "crutch for lexical indecision" (Diamond,
>> Siegel,
>> see below) but also a sign
>> of a poorly developed vocabulary which ranges from "cool" (or
>> whatever the "in" terms are)
>> to its opposite "uncool" (or whatever the "in" terms are).
>>
>> Fritz Goerling
>>
>>
>>
>> Rudy Troike
>>
>> * *
>>
>> LINGUIST List 16.2552
>> Mon Sep 05 2005
>>
>> _________________________________________________________________
>>
>> From: Alexandra D'Arcy <alex.darcy [address-marker.gif]
>> utoronto.ca>
>> Subject: Like: Syntax and Development
>> Institution: University of Toronto
>> Program: Department of Linguistics
>> Dissertation Status: Completed
>> Degree Date: 2005
>> Author: Alexandra D'Arcy
>> Dissertation Title: Like: Syntax and Development
>>
>> Dissertation Director(s):
>> Sali Tagliamonte
>>
>> Dissertation Abstract:
>> Discourse LIKE, as in (1), is one of the most salient
>> features of
>> present-day vernacular English.
>>
>> (1) a. LIKE, Carrie's LIKE a little LIKE out-of-it but LIKE
>> she's the
>> funniest. (3/T/f/18)
>> b. Well, you just cut out LIKE a girl figure and a boy
>> figure.
>> (N/8/f/75)
>>
>> It is overtly stigmatized and associated with adolescents,
>> where it is
>> perceived as a crutch for lexical indecision (e.g.,
>> Diamond 2000;
>> Siegel 2000). In the literature, LIKE is sometimes
>> characterized as a
>> 'meaningless interjection' (OED) that can be used
>> 'grammatically
>> anywhere' (Siegel 2002:64).
>>
>> Descriptions such as these suggest that LIKE is
>> unconstrained,
>> yet
>> language, despite inherent variability, is rule-governed (see
>> also
>> Underhill 1988; Andersen 2001).
>>
>> LIKE has received much attention in the pragmatic literature
>> (e.g.,
>> Schourup 1983; Andersen 1997 et seq.), but it has never been
>> investigated from a variationist perspective.
>> Consequently, this
>> dissertation presents an accountable analysis of LIKE in a
>> large corpus
>> of contemporary English. The hypothesis developed in this
>> work
>> is that
>> LIKE is not random, but interacts with syntactic structure in
>> regular
>> and predictable ways. To address this issue, the variable
>> context is
>> circumscribed according to structural criteria and the
>> analyses are
>> embedded within current Minimalist Theory (e.g., Chomsky
>> 1995 et
>> seq.). Over 20,000 structurally defined contexts are
>> examined,
>> comprising data from 97 speakers between the ages of 10
>> and 87.
>>
>> This method reveals that LIKE is 1) highly constrained by the
>> syntax
>> and 2) occurs in specific positions among speakers of all
>> ages. Indeed,
>> examination of language-internal constraints reveals that the
>> community
>> shares a single variable grammar for LIKE (Poplack &
>> Tagliamonte 2001).
>> This feature is shown to have developed gradually and
>> systematically,
>> arriving at its current state through regular processes of
>> language
>> change. Using the grammaticalization models proposed by
>> Traugott (1997
>> [1995]) and Brinton (forthcoming), it is argued that after
>> initially
>> developing as a discourse marker, where it occurs
>> clause-initially and
>> links sequences of dialogue (Fraser 1988, 1990), LIKE then
>> begins to
>> enter syntactic structure, spreading to one maximal
>> projection
>> at a time.
>> _
>>
>>
>
>
> [This message contained attachments]
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 16:41:35 -0000
> From: "Fritz Goerling" <Fritz_Goerling at sil.org>
> Subject: RE: Dissertation on "like"
>
> What if you replace every "like" by "you know"? This is a habit
> some adults
> have.
> Maybe this deserves a psycholinguistic dissertation.
>
> Fritz Goerling
>
>
>
> (In case you are not a regular reader of the Linguist List)
>
> If you, like, are, like, one of those, like, who, like, use,
> like, "like"
> like before and like after every other, like, word, or if this
> practice
> drives you up the wall, you may be surprised and interested to
> know that
> it has, like, fostered a growing body of linguistic research, of
> which
> this is, like, the, like, latest. Lexicographical entries (e.g.
> OED) may
> have to be, like, revised.
>
> Rudy Troike
>
> * *
>
> LINGUIST List 16.2552
> Mon Sep 05 2005
> _________________________________________________________________
>
> From: Alexandra D'Arcy <alex.darcy [address-marker.gif]
> utoronto.ca>
> Subject: Like: Syntax and Development
> Institution: University of Toronto
> Program: Department of Linguistics
> Dissertation Status: Completed
> Degree Date: 2005
> Author: Alexandra D'Arcy
> Dissertation Title: Like: Syntax and Development
>
> Dissertation Director(s):
> Sali Tagliamonte
>
> Dissertation Abstract:
> Discourse LIKE, as in (1), is one of the most salient features of
> present-day vernacular English.
>
> (1) a. LIKE, Carrie's LIKE a little LIKE out-of-it but LIKE
> she's the
> funniest. (3/T/f/18)
> b. Well, you just cut out LIKE a girl figure and a boy
> figure.
> (N/8/f/75)
>
> It is overtly stigmatized and associated with adolescents,
> where it is
> perceived as a crutch for lexical indecision (e.g., Diamond 2000;
> Siegel 2000). In the literature, LIKE is sometimes
> characterized as a
> 'meaningless interjection' (OED) that can be used 'grammatically
> anywhere' (Siegel 2002:64).
>
> Descriptions such as these suggest that LIKE is unconstrained,
> yet
> language, despite inherent variability, is rule-governed (see
> also
> Underhill 1988; Andersen 2001).
>
> LIKE has received much attention in the pragmatic literature
> (e.g.,
> Schourup 1983; Andersen 1997 et seq.), but it has never been
> investigated from a variationist perspective. Consequently, this
> dissertation presents an accountable analysis of LIKE in a
> large corpus
> of contemporary English. The hypothesis developed in this work
> is that
> LIKE is not random, but interacts with syntactic structure in
> regular
> and predictable ways. To address this issue, the variable
> context is
> circumscribed according to structural criteria and the
> analyses are
> embedded within current Minimalist Theory (e.g., Chomsky 1995 et
> seq.). Over 20,000 structurally defined contexts are examined,
> comprising data from 97 speakers between the ages of 10 and 87.
>
> This method reveals that LIKE is 1) highly constrained by the
> syntax
> and 2) occurs in specific positions among speakers of all
> ages. Indeed,
> examination of language-internal constraints reveals that the
> community
> shares a single variable grammar for LIKE (Poplack &
> Tagliamonte 2001).
> This feature is shown to have developed gradually and
> systematically,
> arriving at its current state through regular processes of
> language
> change. Using the grammaticalization models proposed by
> Traugott (1997
> [1995]) and Brinton (forthcoming), it is argued that after
> initially
> developing as a discourse marker, where it occurs clause-
> initially and
> links sequences of dialogue (Fraser 1988, 1990), LIKE then
> begins to
> enter syntactic structure, spreading to one maximal projection
> at a
> time.
> _________________________________________________________________
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
> --
> YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
>
> a.. Visit your group "lexicographylist" on the web.
>
> b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> lexicographylist-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com
>
> c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
> Service.
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
> --
>
>
>
> [This message contained attachments]
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 13:07:41 -0400
> From: fieldworks_support at sil.org
> Subject: Re: Dissertation on "like"
>
> But if the corpus was like collected from like Canadians, you know, it
> might be like totally nonrepresentative of like other dialects of
> contemporary English, eh?
>
>
> Steve White, Jaars language software support
> 704-843-6337, 1-800-215-7813
>
>
>
>
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