"Like" abuse redivivus

[Jonathan Lighter]

"You know" has also been a roundly condemned pain in the butt since at least the early '70s.

  JL

JAMES H COPELAND <jamescopeland20 at MSN.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: JAMES H COPELAND
Subject: Re: "Like" abuse redivivus
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What is as bad now, if not worse, than "like" was then, is the maddening =
use of "you know". It has driven me up more walls than I can count!
Jim Copeland
----- Original Message -----=20
From: Jonathan Lighter=20
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU=20
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 8:33 AM
Subject: "Like" abuse redivivus


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Sender: American Dialect Society =
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Poster: Jonathan Lighter =
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Subject: "Like" abuse redivivus
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Actually, it's never been gone, but thirty years ago "like" abuse was =
a big deal among the "Death of English" crowd. Recent developments in =
global warming and so forth have rather shunted it from notice.

On campus yesterday I heard a young university woman explaining =
excitedly, "So, like, it was like I was like that's _impossible_! And, =
like, she was like 'No! It isn't!' Like, then I was like it still sounds =
kind of crazy like."

Admittedly this is not an exact transcription, but I promise you it =
comes very close. She certainly used "like" more densely (no pun =
intended) than any other speaker I've ever heard.

I may have mentioned previously that the first time I became aware =
of "to be like," meaning "to think or say," was as late as 1984, though =
it has since been antedated by some few years.

JL

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