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<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=992560811-06092005></SPAN>H<SPAN
class=992560811-06092005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3>owdy,
Rudy, </FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=992560811-06092005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3></FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=992560811-06092005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3>This adolescents' use of "like" is like German
adolescents' use of "irgendwie" (= somehow).</FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=992560811-06092005>It is
not just a "crutch for lexical indecision" (Diamond, Siegel, see below) but also
a sign</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=992560811-06092005>of a
poorly developed vocabulary which ranges from "cool" (or whatever the "in" terms
are)</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=992560811-06092005>to its
opposite "uncool" (or whatever the "in" terms are).</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN
class=992560811-06092005></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=992560811-06092005>Fritz
Goerling</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=992560811-06092005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><BR><BR></DIV></FONT></FONT>
<BLOCKQUOTE><TT><BR>(In case you are not a regular reader of the Linguist
List)<BR><BR>If you, like, are, like, one of those, like, who, like, use,
like, "like"<BR>like before and like after every other, like, word, or if this
practice<BR>drives you up the wall, you may be surprised and interested to
know that<BR>it has, like, fostered a growing body of linguistic research, of
which<BR>this is, like, the, like, latest. Lexicographical entries (e.g. OED)
may<BR>have to be, like, revised.<BR><BR> Rudy
Troike<BR><BR> * *<BR><BR> LINGUIST List
16.2552<BR> Mon Sep 05 2005<BR>
_________________________________________________________________<BR><BR>
From: Alexandra D'Arcy <alex.darcy [address-marker.gif]
utoronto.ca><BR> Subject: Like: Syntax and
Development<BR> Institution: University of Toronto<BR>
Program: Department of Linguistics<BR> Dissertation Status:
Completed<BR> Degree Date: 2005<BR> Author: Alexandra
D'Arcy<BR> Dissertation Title: Like: Syntax and
Development<BR><BR> Dissertation Director(s):<BR> Sali
Tagliamonte<BR><BR> Dissertation Abstract:<BR>
Discourse LIKE, as in (1), is one of the most salient features
of<BR> present-day vernacular English.<BR><BR> (1) a.
LIKE, Carrie's LIKE a little LIKE out-of-it but LIKE she's
the<BR> funniest.
(3/T/f/18)<BR> b. Well, you just cut out
LIKE a girl figure and a boy
figure.<BR>
(N/8/f/75)<BR><BR> It is overtly stigmatized and associated with
adolescents, where it is<BR> perceived as a crutch for lexical
indecision (e.g., Diamond 2000;<BR> Siegel 2000). In the
literature, LIKE is sometimes characterized as a<BR> 'meaningless
interjection' (OED) that can be used 'grammatically<BR> anywhere'
(Siegel 2002:64).<BR><BR> Descriptions such as these suggest that
LIKE is unconstrained, yet<BR> language, despite inherent
variability, is rule-governed (see also<BR> Underhill 1988;
Andersen 2001).<BR><BR> LIKE has received much attention in the
pragmatic literature (e.g.,<BR> Schourup 1983; Andersen 1997 et
seq.), but it has never been<BR> investigated from a variationist
perspective. Consequently, this<BR> dissertation presents an
accountable analysis of LIKE in a large corpus<BR> of contemporary
English. The hypothesis developed in this work is that<BR> LIKE is
not random, but interacts with syntactic structure in regular<BR>
and predictable ways. To address this issue, the variable context
is<BR> circumscribed according to structural criteria and the
analyses are<BR> embedded within current Minimalist Theory (e.g.,
Chomsky 1995 et<BR> seq.). Over 20,000 structurally defined
contexts are examined,<BR> comprising data from 97 speakers
between the ages of 10 and 87.<BR><BR> This method reveals that
LIKE is 1) highly constrained by the syntax<BR> and 2) occurs in
specific positions among speakers of all ages. Indeed,<BR>
examination of language-internal constraints reveals that the
community<BR> shares a single variable grammar for LIKE (Poplack
& Tagliamonte 2001).<BR> This feature is shown to have
developed gradually and systematically,<BR> arriving at its
current state through regular processes of language<BR> change.
Using the grammaticalization models proposed by Traugott (1997<BR>
[1995]) and Brinton (forthcoming), it is argued that after
initially<BR> developing as a discourse marker, where it occurs
clause-initially and<BR> links sequences of dialogue (Fraser 1988,
1990), LIKE then begins to<BR> enter syntactic structure,
spreading to one maximal projection at a time.<BR>
_________________________________________________________________<BR><BR></TT>
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