"like" and "as if"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Back in those days, the introductory "like" was customarily followed by a comma, as there was almost always a slight pause between it and what followed.  Of course,  _Mojo Navigator_ may have been less punctilious.

For those who fear that the construction was lost to English with the fading away of the hippie movement and the increasing ex-beatnik mortality rate, let me reassure you. I just Googled up 16,000 exx. of "Like, who cares?"

When the sitcom _The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis_, premiered in the fall of 1959, the "like" construction was instantly popularized among youngsters such as myself, thanks to its constant use by beatnik character Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver in, yes, his greatest role).

JL

Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
Subject: Re: "like" and "as if"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Thu, 23 Jun 2005 16:16:12 -0400, Benjamin Zimmer
wrote:

>This construction is hard to search for in the databases, but here's an
>example of ironic assertional "like" from 1966 (in the same interview
>with Country Joe and the Fish that I recently cited for "get spaced"):
>
>-----
>"Country Joe and the Fish" by Greg Shaw
>_Mojo Navigator_, 22 November 1966 (rocksbackpages.com)
>BARRY: Every time Joe McDonald gets spaced he sings old folk songs.
>TOM: Now the truth comes out.
>DAVID: Yeah, that's a good point, man, we all do. As a matter of fact we
>all sing old folksongs when we're not doing rock'n'roll to keep our heads
>straight.
>JOE: That's for security; you want to go back to something that you know.
>TOM: Yeah, but you just said you don't have any roots there. Yeah, like
>it's a fraud for you to sing folk songs.
>-----
>
>The sarcasm isn't too heavy here, but there is clearly an ironic intent,
>since Tom Weller (the band's poster designer) isn't really accusing Joe
>McDonald of being a fraud for singing folk songs.

On second thought, maybe Weller really was making a playful accusation. As
the interview continues, the charge seems to be taken (semi-)seriously:

-----
DAVID: That's his field man, he used to sing old...
JOE: Well, I'm going to forget this; I feel hostility growing in the room.
What we're doing now is just like a hint of what I think should be done
[etc.]
-----

So perhaps this is just a case of "like" used "to introduce or call
attention to the following clause" (HDAS def 3). One would probably need
to hear a recording of the interview to know for sure.


--Ben Zimmer

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com