"like" and "as if"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, 23 Jun 2005 16:56:55 -0700, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

>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.

Like, I think the comma is/was most often used when introducing a
sentence-initial clause, but like if it's mid-sentential then the comma
would often be dropped.

Mid-sentential examples from _Mojo Navigator_:

-----
At ten o'clock they started to serve drinks and the older crowd would come
in, and like they’re white-collar drunks and all...a bad scene.
("Big Brother & the Holding Company", Sep. 1966)
-----
The only other blues clubs are in the South Side, and like you just don't
go down there unless you have a spade friend with you.
("Big Brother & the Holding Company", Sep. 1966)
-----
I always used to sip my mother's beer, so like I started playin' right
then and just listened to all the different music around the country.
("Country Joe and the Fish", 22 Nov. 1966)
-----

Here's commaless "like" in both initial and medial position:

-----
Like you go to the Avalon now and you'll see... it used to be like just a
small group of people in front that were listening and then like 90% of
the audience was running around and dancing...and now like almost the
whole auditorium is covered with sitting people, and it's, I think,
considered uncool to freak out.
("Interview with the Doors", Aug. 1967)
-----

But elsewhere in the same article initial "like" gets a comma:

-----
Like, they're really good musicians, and they're tight, but so's Wilson
Pickett, you know?
("Interview with the Doors", Aug. 1967)
-----

I think the magazine staff punctuated however they, like, liked.


--Ben Zimmer