American Speech Table of Contents for A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage: 1 December 2007; Vol. 82, No. 4

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Dec 27, 2007, at 10:45 AM, Grant Barrett wrote:

> A new issue of American Speech has been made available:
>
> A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage: 1 December 2007; Vol. 82, No. 4
>
>
> LIKE AND LANGUAGE IDEOLOGY: DISENTANGLING FACT FROM FICTION
>     Alexandra D'Arcy
>     American Speech 2007;82 386-419
>     http://americanspeech.dukejournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/82/4/386?etoc

an excellent antidote to the sort of nonsense (marked off by double
asterisks) promulgated by Safire, most recently in his 12/23 NYT column:

LIKE VS. SUCH AS: Prescriptivist language mavens are supposed to use
like for resemblance and _such as_ for an example. I have been
breaking this “rule” frequently, as the N.L. [the Nit-pickers League]
likes to point out, but the time has come to come to terms with the
terms in a systematic way. Here goes: Like you, I say “like me” and
will continue that usage. But _such as_ serves a function in setting
up a series, _such as you, me and the lamppost_. **Besides, the word
_like_ is being used as verb, preposition and interjection ad nauseam:
expressing affection (I like you), comparison (like father, like
daughter) and as a delaying crutch or nervous hesitation (like, I
forgot, like, what I was saying). Because _like_ has been ripping
through teenage lingo like a verbal virus — challenging even _y’know_**
— I will henceforth replace it with _such as_ in the following kind of
construction: such as before a series of examples, a list of names, a
farrago of complaints and some such.

....

a new chapter in the War On "Like".

arnold

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