Why do people like stick the word 'like' into like everything they like say?

D_Thoraxis_Biggulp

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I thought it was just "um" with more letters. Doesn't really serve a purpose, just sort of a pause. As for why people type it into sentences online, I guess it's because they type it as it plays in their head. Y'know, as though they were actually speaking it.
 

dannymawg

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OK Earl... we'll all stop using "like" as soon as you can get through one day without using "um..."

Which is pretty much the same thing - a semi-conscious, conversational placeholder.

Someone will have better info on the introduction of "like" into common usage, but I can point to what popularized it (among other figures of speech): Frank Zappa's song "Valley Girl", from 1982. Dig it up - it's all excellent drums and bass for 5 minutes :biggrin1:



Conversation is an art, or a craft. Take the word "fuck" - used artfully, sparingly - it carries its intended punch. "Like" falls into the same category. Overusage lends an air of low intelligence; that filler is necessary for the speaker to complete the thought on the fly. It's a crutch.

Personally, I don't think it's lack of intelligence - it's just that some (most?) don't care about their craft.

A lawyer friend related once that his pre-law classes included a public speaking course that spent some time focusing on this issue, as it is ingrained into kids' speech now. Their solution to not using "like or "um" or similar filler?

"Now..."
 

TurkeyWithaSunburn

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Which is pretty much the same thing - a semi-conscious, conversational placeholder.
ahh conversational placeholder best way to describe like, uh, and uhm. You stop for a split second to think about the right word or phrasing of words.

Found this peer reviewed paper from a science journal.
Interactive aspects of vagueness in conversation*=*Les aspects interactifs du flou dans la conversation
...
Abstract:
Vagueness in reference is often seen as a deplorable deviation from precision and clarity. Using a relevance theoretical framework of analysis, we demonstrate instead that vague expressions may be more effective than precise ones in conveying the intended meaning of an utterance. That is, they may carry more relevant contextual implications than would a precise expression. In introducing entities into a conversation, we found that vague referring expressions often served as a focusing device, helping the addressee determine how much processing effort should be devoted to a given referent. In characterising events and experiences, they may indicate a closer or looser assignment of a characteristic to a conceptual category. For expressing quantities, they may convey the speaker's attitude about the quantity itself, and they may convey assumptions about the speaker's and/or the hearer's beliefs. They may be used to directly express the degree of commitment a speaker makes to a proposition, or they may convey other propositional attitudes such as newsworthiness and personal evaluation more indirectly. Finally, they may serve social functions such as engendering camaraderie and softening implicit criticisms. They may thus be seen as managing conversational implicature. Our analysis is based on a corpus of semi-controlled spoken interactions between California students, who were asked to converse on specific topics, such as movies, sports or opera.
...
Published in Journal of Pragmatics ISSN 0378-2166
 

Deno

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they "like" it.

HEY, I was like gonna say something like that.

It's alot better then people who use the word fuck in every sentence and at least there not saying Smirf.
 
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earllogjam

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I overheard a conversation at lunch at a city plaza close to where I work. Two younger people, a girl and guy in their mid 20's were recounting their weekend and I swear the word "like" was uttered practically every other word that came out of their mouths.

Where do people learn to speak like this outside of Southern California? I mean really. Valley Girl aside (thanks Mawg for the little trip down memory lane) it has become somewhat standard speech of young people most anywhere you go now it seems. Has this "like" interjection in sentences been going strong since the 80's. God help us.
 

B_New End

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Its very common in college.
I actually think, it is not only a conversational placeholder, but also used for rythm od the story, to give the story timing, in an attempt to make it more entertaining.

Uh, um, and you know, are also commonly used.

I worked in technical support with a guy, ex gang banger, that was always saying, "you know what Im sayin'?" I pointed it out to him, and he was surprised, adn stopped.

I have tried ot get rid of it. It is very strange to tell a story using he said "blah blah blah" then she said "blah blha blah", to which he retorted "blah blah blah". I found myself stammering quite a bit.
 

D_Martin van Burden

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I try not to use it; it's difficult to do sometimes. I agree with some posters who have suggested that "like" is akin to a pause, a comma in a conversation. But then again, it's really hard to believe that if you tune into MTV for more than ten seconds and a group of young people can literally say only the words "like," "as if," "I know," and "riiight?" and have a total conversation that way. Ugh.
 

earllogjam

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I try not to use it; it's difficult to do sometimes. I agree with some posters who have suggested that "like" is akin to a pause, a comma in a conversation. But then again, it's really hard to believe that if you tune into MTV for more than ten seconds and a group of young people can literally say only the words "like," "as if," "I know," and "riiight?" and have a total conversation that way. Ugh.

Using the word "like" in sentences as a pause marks you as immature or a teeny bopper in my book. It's like thumb sucking - by the time you are 30 you should be over it.