Like
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In
.Uses
Comparisons
Like is one of the words in the English language that can introduce a
As a conjunction
Like is often used in place of the
- They look like they have been having fun.
- They look as if they have been having fun.
Many people became aware of the two options in 1954, when a famous ad campaign for Winston cigarettes introduced the slogan "
The appropriateness of its usage as a conjunction is still disputed, however. In some circles, it is considered an error to use like instead of as or as if in formal prose.
As a noun
Like can be used as a noun meaning "preference" or "kind". Examples:
- She had many likes and dislikes.
- We'll never see the like again.
When used specifically on social media, it can refer to interactions with content posted by a user, commonly referred to as "likes" on websites such as Twitter or Instagram.
- That picture you posted got a lot of likes!
As a verb
As a verb, like generally refers to a fondness for something or someone.[1]
- I like riding my bicycle.
Like can be used to express a feeling of attraction between two people that is weaker than love. It does not necessarily imply a romantic attraction.[3][4] Example:
- Marc likes Denise.
- I've taken a liking to our new neighbors.
Like can also be used to indicate a wish for something in a polite manner.[1] Example:
- Would you like a cup of coffee?
As a colloquial adverb
In some regional dialects of English, like may be used as an adverbial colloquialism in the construction be + like + to infinitive, meaning "be likely to, be ready to, be on the verge of." Examples:
- He was like to go back next time.
- He was like to go mad.
As the following attest, this construction has a long history in the English language.
- But Clarence had slumped to his knees before I had half-finished, and he was like to go out of his mind with fright. (Mark Twain, 1889, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court)
- He saw he was like to leave such an heir. (Cotton Mather, 1853, Magnalia Christi Americana)
- He was like to lose his life in the one [battle] and his liberty in the other [capture], but there was none of his money at stake in either. (Charles MacFarlane and Thomas Napier Thomson, 1792, Comprehensive History of England)
- He was in some fear that if he could not bring about the King’s desires, he was like to lose his favor. (Gilbert Burnet, 1679, History of the Reformation of the Church of England)
As a colloquial quotative
Like is sometimes used
- He was like, "I'll be there in five minutes."
- She was like, "You need to leave the room right now!"
Like can also be used to paraphrase an implicitly unspoken idea or sentiment:
- I was like, "Who do they think they are?"
The marking of past tense is often omitted (compare historical present):
- They told me all sorts of terrible things, and I'm like "Forget it then."[6]
It is also sometimes used to introduce non-verbal mimetic performances, e.g., facial expressions, hand gestures, body movement, as well as sounds and noises:[7]
- I was like [speaker rolls eyes].
- The car was like, "vroom!"
The use of like as a quotative is known to have been around since at least the 1980s.[8]
As a discourse particle, filler or hedge
History
This section needs additional citations for verification. (February 2016) |
The word like has developed several non-traditional uses in informal speech. Especially since the late 20th century onward, it has appeared, in addition to its traditional uses, as a
Despite such prevalence in modern-day spoken English, these colloquial usages of like rarely appear in writing (unless the writer is deliberately trying to replicate colloquial dialogue) and they have long been stigmatized in formal speech or in
In pop culture, such colloquial applications of like (especially in verbal excess) are commonly and often comedically associated with Valley girls, as made famous through the song "Valley Girl" by Frank Zappa, released in 1982, and the film of the same name, released in the following year. The stereotyped "valley girl" language is an exaggeration of the variants of California English spoken by younger generations.
This non-traditional usage of the word has been around at least since the 1950s, introduced through beat (or beatnik) and jazz culture. The beatnik character Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver) in the popular Dobie Gillis TV series of 1959-1963 brought the expression to prominence; this was reinforced in later decades by the character of Shaggy on Scooby-Doo (who was based on Krebs).
Very early use of this locution[citation needed] can be seen in a New Yorker cartoon of 15 September 1928, in which two young ladies are discussing a man's workplace: "What's he got – an awfice?" "No, he's got like a loft."
It is also used in the 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange by the narrator as part of his teenage slang and in the Top Cat cartoon series from 1961 to 1962 by the jazz beatnik type characters.
A common eye dialect spelling is lyk.
Examples
Like can be used in much the same way as "um..." or "er..." as a
- I, like, don't know what to do.
It is also becoming more often used (East Coast
- I didn't say anything, like.
- Just be cool, like.
Use of like as a filler has a long history in Scots English, as in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novel Kidnapped:
"What'll like be your business, mannie?"
"What's like wrong with him?" said she at last.
Like can be used as hedge to indicate that the following phrase will be an approximation or exaggeration, or that the following words may not be quite right, but are close enough. It may indicate that the phrase in which it appears is to be taken metaphorically or as a hyperbole. This use of like is sometimes regarded as adverbial, as like is often synonymous here with adverbial phrases of approximation, such as "almost" or "more or less". Examples:
- I have, like, no money left.
- The restaurant is only, like, five miles from here.
- I, like, almost died!
Conversely, like may also be used to indicate a counterexpectation to the speaker, or to indicate certainty regarding the following phrase.[5] Examples:
- There was, like, a living kitten in the box!
- This is, like, the only way to solve the problem.
- I, like, know what I'm doing, okay?
In the UK reality television series Love Island the word 'like' has been used an average of 300 times per episode, much to the annoyance of viewers.[12]
See also
Bibliography
- Andersen, Gisle. (1998). The pragmatic marker like from a relevance-theoretic perspective. In A. H. Jucker & Y. Ziv (Eds.) Discourse markers: Descriptions and Theory (pp. 147–70). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Andersen, Gisle. (2000). The role of the pragmatic marker like in utterance interpretation. In G. Andersen & T. Fretheim (Ed.), Pragmatic markers and propositional attitude: Pragmatics and beyond (pp. 79). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Barbieri, Federica. (2005). Quotative use in American English. A corpus-based, cross-register comparison. Journal of English Linguistics, 33, (3), 225-256.
- Barbieri, Federica. (2007). 'Older men and younger women': A corpus-based study of quotative use in American English. English World-Wide, 28, (1), 23-45.
- Blyth, Carl, Jr.; Recktenwald, Sigrid; & Wang, Jenny. (1990). I'm like, 'Say what?!': A new quotative in American oral narrative. American Speech, 65, 215-227.
- Cruse, A. (2000). Meaning in language. An introduction to semantics and pragmatics.
- Cukor-Avila, Patricia; (2002). She says, she goes, she is like: Verbs of quotation over time in African American Vernacular English. American Speech, 77 (1), 3-31.
- Dailey-O'Cain, Jennifer. (2000). The sociolinguistic distribution of and attitudes toward focuser like and quotative like. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 4, 60–80.
- D'Arcy, Alexandra. (2017). Discourse-pragmatic variation in context: Eight hundred years of LIKE. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Ferrara, Kathleen; & Bell, Barbara. (1995). Sociolinguistic variation and discourse function of constructed dialogue introducers: The case of be+like. American Speech, 70, 265-289.
- Fleischman, Suzanne. (1998). Des jumeaux du discours. La Linguistique, 34 (2), 31-47.
- Golato, Andrea; (2000). An innovative German quotative for reporting on embodied actions: Und ich so/und er so 'and I’m like/and he’s like'. Journal of Pragmatics, 32, 29–54.
- Jones, Graham M. & Schieffelin, Bambi B. (2009). Enquoting Voices, Accomplishing Talk: Uses of Be+Like in Instant Messaging. Language & Communication, 29(1), 77-113.
- Jucker, Andreas H.; & Smith, Sara W. (1998). And people just you know like 'wow': Discourse markers as negotiating strategies. In A. H. Jucker & Y. Ziv (Eds.), Discourse markers: Descriptions and theory (pp. 171–201). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Mesthrie, R., Swann, J., Deumert, A., & Leap, W. (2009). Introducing sociolinguistics. Edinburgh University Press.
- Miller, Jim; Weinert, Regina. (1995). The function of like in dialogue. Journal of Pragmatics, 23, 365-93.
- Romaine, Suzanne; Lange, Deborah. (1991). The use of like as a marker of reported speech and thought: A case of grammaticalization in progress. American Speech, 66, 227-279.
- Ross, John R.; & Cooper, William E. (1979). Like syntax. In W. E. Cooper & E. C. T. Walker (Eds.), Sentence processing: Psycholinguistic studies presented to Merrill Garrett (pp. 343–418). New York: Erlbaum Associates.
- Schourup, L. (1985). Common discourse particles: "Like", "well", "y'know". New York: Garland.
- Siegel, Muffy E. A. (2002). Like: The discourse particle and semantics. Journal of Semantics, 19 (1), 35-71.
- Taglimonte, Sali; & Hudson, Rachel. (1999). Be like et al. beyond America: The quotative system in British and Canadian youth. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 3 (2), 147-172.
- Tagliamonte, Sali, and Alexandra D'Arcy. (2004). He's like, she's like: The quotative system in Canadian youth. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 8 (4), 493-514.
- Underhill, Robert; (1988). Like is like, focus. American Speech, 63, 234-246.
References
- ^ a b c "Like". Cambridge Dictionary. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
- ^ "As or like?". Cambridge Dictionary. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
- ^ Seltzer, Leon F (March 7, 2017). "'I Have Feelings for You,' Its Eight Different Meanings". Psychology Today. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
- ^ Tigar, Lindsay (January 19, 2016). "How to Say 'I Like You' When You're Not Ready for 'I Love You'". Bustle. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
- ^ a b McWhorter, John (November 25, 2016). "The Evolution of 'Like'". The Atlantic. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ^ Quoted from: Daniel P. Cullen, "I'm Learning as I Go, and I Don't Like That": Urban Community College Students' College Literacy, ProQuest, 2008, p. 210.
- ^ "Linguists are like, 'Get used to it!'". The Boston Globe.
- JSTOR 455910.
- ^ ISBN 9027250987.
- ^ Wolfson, Sam (15 May 2022). "Why do people, like, say, 'like' so much?". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
But there are more uses than that, for example the Geordie tradition of finishing sentences with a like.
- ^ Mesthrie, R., Swann, J., Deumert, A., & Leap, W. (2009). Introducing sociolinguistics. Edinburgh University Press.
- ^ Griffiths, Sian; Julie Henry (June 16, 2019). "Like it or not, they can't stop saying it on Love Island". The Times. London.
External links
- See Fleischman (1998) (JSTOR 30249153) for a parallel discussion of like and the similar discourse particle genre in French.