[Ads-l] Like, Where in the OED Does This Fit In ?

[Shapiro, Fred]

As I mention at the beginning of my article "Confessions of the Antedater," I am not a linguist nor a grammarian.  I have a question that I hope one of the real linguists on this list can answer.

I have come across the following passage in the Detroit Free Press, June 10, 1956:

"we try, like, to explain, like, what's meant, like"

Sometimes OED entries are so lengthy and so hairsplitting that I have trouble finding a particular sense of the headword.  In the 1956 passage above, "like" seems to be used as a repetitive filler.  I think this is a precursor of "Valley Girl speak."  The closest sense I see in OED is "like, adv., 6.b."  Is that the answer to my question, or am I missing some other relevant sense ?

Fred Shapiro

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