"Like" abuse redivivus

[Dennis Preston]

I didn't say anything about their articulateness (nor would I agree
that they not); I was just reporting the results of a survey of
like-users who themselves very much disliked S-final "like" (whenit
was clearly not what I called "appended 'like.'" The appended "likes"
("He was kinda happy-like") don't usually seem to be the ones
targeted by like-haters, but the example you give is indeed ambiguous.

dInIs



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>Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>Subject:      Re: "Like" abuse redivivus
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>I suspect you're right, dInIs, but I didn't actually _hear_ the
>hyphen.  Seems like like-abuse either way, but next time I'll try to
>be more attentive.
>
>   BTW, I don't think many such speakers are _trying_ to be
>"fashionably inarticulate." They're  inarticulate, period.  It also
>"helps" if they're a little bit excited.
>
>   JL
>
>Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU> wrote:
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>Subject: Re: "Like" abuse redivivus
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>A recent survey of active users of "like" shos that they don't like
>S-final "like." If your memory is accurate, I suspect the "like" you
>cite at the end of the sentence is not focus or quotative "like" but
>an addition to "crazy," "He acted kinda crazy-like."
>
>dInIs
>
>
>
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>>Sender: American Dialect Society
>>Poster: Jonathan Lighter
>>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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>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor
>Department of English
>Morrill Hall 15-C
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
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--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
Morrill Hall 15-C
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48864 USA

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