When did we get so lazy about speaking our own language? I’m guilty of it myself: the insertion of “like” into every sentence, for example, using it as an adjective, an adverb, a preposition. Using “like” can send the meaning of one very simple sentence into many different directions, and we don’t ever think about it when we do it. I know, though, when I do think about it, I’m slightly agog at how often it’s thrown around.
“I woke up at, like, 7 am, and, like, brushed my teeth, and was, like, why is it, like, so, like, early?” We could easily present our meaning in a much shorter sentence: “Waking up at 7 am is really early!” So, is it really laziness? I decided to investigate.
I asked an expert, my linguist brother, to tell me in layman’s terms why people now throw “like” into everything we say. He says it’s what linguists call a “focus marker.” It tells the listener that what comes after is the most important part of the sentence, new information that they need to pay attention to.
I also learned that if used in slightly different form, such as, “I’m like, ‘Say what, dude?’” it could mean either “I said, ‘Say what, dude?” or “I thought, ‘Say what, dude?’” Apparently, our disliked “like” can convey a reaction without stating whether that reaction was verbal or not, something that no other quotative in English can do.
After hearing that, maybe I should have a new appreciation for our beloved word, with all these unique properties. But I’m still not convinced. We don’t usually insert it into writing. Why? Because it would sound stupid and take away from what we wanted to say.
If I took a piece of beautiful poetry and added ‘like’ into the verses, can you imagine the horror? “How do I, like, love thee? Let me, like, count the ways.” Yikes. All I can do after looking at that is laugh. Not romantic at all, and it certainly doesn’t get the point across in any meaningful and serious way. If a guy says to me, “I, like, think I, like, love you,” I can promise you that it will not affect me in the way that a simple “I think I love you” will. Who knows, though? Maybe that is the whole point. Maybe we are afraid of being taken too seriously, and this is an easy, if slightly subconscious, way to do it.
Language is a funny thing, constantly changing (although maybe not evolving in a way that seems productive), and we are always striving to find new ways to express ourselves and to accentuate how we feel.
I do know that when I sit in class and listen to someone explain how they feel about a piece of work that we are studying, and every second or third word is “like,” I don’t take them as seriously as I would if they didn’t constantly use that word. By incorporating “like” into all our sentences, using it to accentuate our nouns and verbs and chopping up what we’re saying, someone who usually appears to be an intelligent individual is actually making the recipient search for the meaning between the “likes.” It causes me to think that the days of real, intelligent, and meaningful conversation may be on their way out. Or, maybe, as my linguist brother would say, language is always evolving, and it’s always fun to question.
But is there really meaning between the “like”s? Or can I just say it sounds, like, really fucking stupid? Right.