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Liking Information

In the English language, the word like has a very flexible range of uses, ranging from conventional to non-standard. It can be used as a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, particle, conjunction, hedge, interjection, and quotative.

Contents

As a preposition used in comparisons

Like is one of the words in the English language that can introduce a simile (a stylistic device comparing two dissimilar ideas) as in, "He eats like a pig". It can also be used in non-simile comparisons such as, "He has a toy like hers".

As a conjunction

Like is often used in place of the subordinating conjunction as or as if. Examples:

Many people became aware of the two options in 1954, when a famous ad campaign for Winston cigarettes introduced the slogan "Winston tastes good — like a cigarette should." The slogan was criticised for its usage by prescriptivists, the "as" or "as if" construction being considered more proper. Winston countered with another ad, featuring a woman with greying hair in a bun who insists that ought to be "Winston tastes good as a cigarette should" and is shouted down by happy cigarette smokers asking "What do you want — good grammar or good taste?"

The appropriateness of its usage as a conjunction is still disputed, however. In some circles it is considered a faux pas to use like instead of as or as if, whereas in other circles as sounds stilted.

As a verb

Generally as a verb like refers to a fondness for something or someone. Example:

Like can be used to express a feeling of attraction between two people, weaker than love and distinct from it in important ways. Examples:

In slang and colloquial speech

The word like has developed several non-traditional uses in informal speech. These uses of like are commonly associated with Valley girls in pop culture, 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.

However, non-traditional usage of the word has been around at least since the 1950s, introduced through beat 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. The word finds similar use in Scooby Doo (which originated in 1969) : Shaggy: "Like, let's get out of here here, Scoob!"

It is also used in the 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange by the narrator as part of his teenage slang. "I, like, didn't say anything."

Such uses of the word like can now be found everywhere English is spoken, particularly by young, native English speakers.

A common eye dialect spelling is lyk.

As an adverb

Like can be used as an adverb meaning "nearly" or to indicate that the phrase in which it appears is to be taken metaphorically or as a hyperbole. Examples:

As a quotative

Like is sometimes used as a quotative to introduce a quotation or impersonation. In this usage, like functions in conjunction with a verb, generally be (but also say, think, etc.), as in the following examples:

Like can also be used to paraphrase an implicitly unspoken idea or sentiment:

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:

See Golato (2000) for a similar quotative in German.

As a hedge

Like can be used 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. This usage is associated with informal registers and non-standard dialects. Examples:

As a discourse particle or interjection

Like can also be used in much the same way as "um..." as a discourse particle. It has become a trend among North American teenagers to use the word like in this way.(see Valspeak, discourse marker, and speech disfluency):

It is also becoming more often used (Northern England and Hiberno-English in particular) at the end of a sentence, as an alternative to you know:

Use of "like" as a filler is a fairly old practice in Welsh English. In Scotland, it was used at least as early as 19th century, e.g. in R L Stevenson's 1886 novel Kidnapped:

What'll like be your business, mannie? (p 7)
'What's like wrong with him?' said she at last. (p 193)

See Fleischman (1998) for a similar discourse particle in French.

References

Bibliography

External links

Look up like in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Categories: English grammar

 

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