There was a great editorial in today's Chicago Tribune about the use of "like", especially by America's teenagers. They quote a professor who says that "like" is a word that imparts a particular meaning to a sentence, unlike other filler words such as "you know", "uh", "um". This Professor Siegel from Temple University, therefore, concludes that "like" is worthy of study and deserves respect. It is an interesting article.There's, Like, a Lot to 'Like'

Here is a quote of actual conversation from a 14-year old girl: "It's like, ok, did you, like, see her at school....like, you won't believe this....I think I'm going to just, like, read a magazine, and do something, like, unbrain-ish"

Do you agree with Professor Siegel that "like" used this way imparts more of a meaning in a sentence than do sentence fillers????

Let's examine this! Her sentence was:

"It's like, ok, did you, like, see her at school....like, you won't believe this....I think I'm going to just, like, read a magazine, and do something, like, unbrain-ish"

Translated:

"Did you see her at school? ... You won't believe this! ... I think I'm going to read a magazine and do something...(?that doesn't require much thought?)."

I don't see how the five "likes" helped that sentence!

I agree, Morgan. That professor probably got a $500,000 grant to make that conclusion.
BTW, sorry, folks, if you could not link to the article without registering for the Tribune. I didn't realize that, though the registration is free.

Do you agree with Professor Siegel that "like" used this way imparts more of a meaning
in a sentence
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I read that article in my local paper, and was immediately prejudiced against the professor because of her given name, which was Muffy of Buffy of some other such silly piece of nonsensical fluffery. "Like" and "as" ARE important parts of our language, being the introductory words for simile, but, contrary to the article's suggestion, "like" was used by the beat poets long before the valley girls appropriated it.

Asa,
Just goes to show how sexist I am because I didn't look at the first name and assumed it was a man. And I am a woman!

"Like" and other non-words are used in conversation because the tongue can work more rapidly than the brain (and in the case of the truly inarticulate - like popstars and footballers) much more rapidly than the brain.

To allow the thought process to catch up with the tongue, untutored speakers insert non-words, of which "like" is just one of the more recent.

That they are not used in written communication is proof enough of this. In written communication one can pause, secure in the knowledge that the pause will not be perceived by the reader.

However, since most speakers are afraid of silence in a conversation or delivery, they feel obliged to insert a non-word.

This is at its most painful when one is obliged to listen to a speech from such an untutored speaker AND IT IS ALL UNECESSARY!

The best public speakers insert pauses, not non-words, into their deliveries and their audiences hang on their every word. Just listen to some of Churchill's speeches and hear how he used the power of the pause!

So my advice? If you've nothing to say, say nothing - your audience will wait for you.

Richard English

I agree, Richard, though I did find definitions of some of the following words "non-words":
an Australian dictionary website

ah- interjection (an exclamation expressing pain, surprise, pity, complaint, dislike, joy, etc., according to the manner of utterance). [Middle English]

er - interjection (the written representation of an inarticulate sound made by a speaker when hesitating).

um - interjection 1. (an indication of hesitation or inarticulateness). 2. (an expression of doubt, pensiveness, etc.).
--phrase (ummed; umming) 3. um and ah, Colloquial a. to be indecisive. b. to prevaricate.

uh - interjection (a written representation of a sound made by a speaker when hesitating): would you, uh, sort of, uh, like to dance? [imitative of various inarticulate sounds]

Along these lines, here is a great story from a fellow logophile:

"The scene: Fall, 1961; Emerson Hall, room 101. The speaker: Willard van Ormand Quine, a person of no mean intellect. The course: Philosophy 140 ("Propositional Logic"). Twenty minutes into the lecture, realizing the unusually high frequency of uh-ing, my roommate and I started taking turns scribing one hundred uh's, gave up in amazement and disbelief and stopped at one thousand, with about five minutes left to go in the lecture.

Actual count. First-hand report. Thirty a minute, and more. They came singly or in salvos of up to four and five. I kid you not."

Sorry, I seem to be monopolizing this thread.

However, I just had a thought about "like", which may explain "Muffy's" conclusion. The other sentence fillers really have no specific meaning (perhaps except for "ah"). However, teenage slang uses "like" instead of "said". For example, "He is like, 'she's my girlfriend'". Could that explain the professor's statement that "like" imparts particular meaning to a sentence?

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However, teenage slang uses "like" instead of "said".

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I just got off the phone with my 19 year old daughter, who told me a tale of a friend who visited her today. Now I just want to scream! Here, listen in:

He showed up at my door and I was like, "what are you doin' here?" He was like, "my car broke down at my mother's house and she knew you were lookin' for me. She was like, "I'll drive you over to her house so you can apologize." So I was like, "OK!""

Once I realized that she was saying "like" in place of "said", I started counting. 17 times in less than a minute! And it drove me nuts!

I have always found that the correction of grammar in children is best achieved by beating them with a stick.

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I have always found that the correction of grammar in children is best achieved by beating them with a stick.

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I would try that, but she's bigger than me!

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"Once I realized that she was saying "like" in place of "said", I started counting. 17 times in less than a minute! And it drove me nuts"

These sorts of "portfolio" words that are so commonly used by the linguistically-challanged are not new.

If my memory is accurate, the word "like" has taken over as an all-purpose verb from "goes". With occasional tense modification "go" could have been subsituted for "like" in all cases in the quoted passage.

It would, of course, have been just as ugly a construction!

Richard English

As to our local teenagers, any reports of the demise of "goes" are greatly exaggerated.

Unfortunately.

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The best public speakers insert pauses, not non-words, into their deliveries and their audiences hang on their every word.

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Good public speakers also use other devices to allow the audience time to process what they are saying. These can include discourse markers (First of all, in other words, What I mean to say is), summarising previous points, synonymous phrases and repetition. I find I need to employ all of these when teaching my college-level students to keep their attention.

Yes, as a professor, I heartily agree, museamuse. The pauses are necessary for the audience to process. However, the pauses should be effective, for example with restatements, questions or even silence. I do feel sorry for audiences who have to listen to lectures by people like Professor Willard van Ormand Quine!

I didn't mean to imply that pauses are the only devices that good public speakers use. There are, of course, many others. What they do not use, though, are non-words such as "like", "you know", "um", "I mean" etc.

And of course, all devices can be overused, including pauses. However, I suggest that most speakers are guilty of underusing pauses and could, with advantage, listen to some of the world's greatest orators and learn from the way in which they make pauses work for them.

Richard English

>> "could, with advantage, listen to some of the world's greatest orators"

Richard, a long shot here, but do you know of any site offering audio of (say) Churchill's oratory?

I will research although I know, when I last tried, I couldn't find anything except the sites of modern-day speakers. Having said which, they're also worth listening to.

Richard English

Shufitz
Try www.historychannel.com and click on the "speeches" link for a selection by Winston and many others.

Oh my God, arnie! That was exactly what I meant in the thread about grammar.

Arnie, that is like, so totally cool. Oh my gawd!

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Originally posted by arnie:
http://www.80s.com/Entertainment/ValleyURL/

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Interesting concept, Arnie, but I tried it a couple of times and got nowhere. Some sites wouldn't come up and the NY Times site came up as it regularly would with no ValSpeak involved. Am I doing something wrong or do you have to pay for this service (of dubious value, but what the hell, right?).

It does seem to be rather patchy in its operation. It is at its best when translating a sizeable chunk of text, rather than a paragraph here and there.