\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Rosie O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell appeared recently on the Tonight Show. As an unbelievably wealthy and influential woman who gets listened to, she rattled off some information about other celebrities.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Thanks to a maddening mannerism of hers, I cannot remember the subject matter. What I paid attention to–and tallied–was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like.”<\/p>\n
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Like” can be more than one part of speech, but the way it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being used, not only by O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell but possibly the entire planet, would classify it more as a filler than a meaningful word.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Like” is commonly used to introduce dialogue. Years back, people would say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I felt bad over the rejection and told her, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI never want to see you again.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122” Today, that sentence is more likely to run this way: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And after that rejection, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m like, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI never want to see her again.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Millions of users of this kind of locution choose \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like” in place of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I said something like.” A few years ago, a columnist for the Washington Post, Malcolm Gladwell, explained that the use of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like” as an introducer of a direct quote was restricted to teenaged girls who wear braces and usually are named Jennifer, who hang around in malls and whose parlance consists of, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m like Wow. Why do I even hang around with that creep?” The context generally deals with one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s regret over a bad choice and with self-reproach. The columnist who singled out the teenaged mall-dwelling, braces-wearing Jennifers was correct, for a while. Listen in on a conversation between two or three Jennifers and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be just a few seconds before one of them describes her latest crush with, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And I was like \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWow!\u00e2\u20ac\u2122”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Now the use of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like” applies equally to boys\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand men too. Like just three minutes of any talk show will assure you that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like” is an equal-opportunity solecism.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Like” has other functions, in addition to its declining meaning as a comparison or a verb indicating preference. People still correctly say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Your car runs like a cement mixer,” and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I like the Raiders.” But the other uses outnumber the classical uses.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 People use \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like” to soften the impact of a request, as a hedge. The son will ask, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dad, is it okay if I, like, borrow the car?” That leaves an opening for Dad to say no. People also use \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like” as a buffered comparison designed to be inoffensive. In that sense, we hear people say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like a shaggy jacket.” That context tells the wearer that the jacket soon will be shaggy if not mended, but so far, the jacket\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all right.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Like” also functions as an intensifier. If the meaning is clear, and you take each word at face value, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like” can toughen it. One can say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That teacher is strict,” and mean merely that he or she tolerates no misbehavior in class. But by inserting \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like,” as in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That teacher is\u00e2\u20ac\u201dlike\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmean,” the meaning is now that misbehavior will result in being suspended from the ceiling by the thumbs, or even worse, being assigned an essay on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How I spent my summer vacation.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Still another use of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like,” heard only among people over 40, serves as a way of easing into a conversation. The Beatniks of the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc50s customarily started every sentence with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Like man . . .” And that makes any conversation relevant. Often the full sentence was, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Like man, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m feeling no pain.” Try it. Approach anyone (women too) with the words \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like man,” and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re free to pursue any conversation, whether it be astrological (What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s your sign?), meteorological (Is it hot enough for you?), geographical (Where you from?) or behavioral (What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?)
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Last week radio personality-psychologist Dr. Laura Schlesinger was fielding a call from a teenaged Jennifer whose parlance went something like this: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I like broke up with my boyfriend like the other day. You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like, like to feel so much, like, pain.” Schlesinger\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s order was to provide the information without one utterance of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like.” The girl did fine for about a minute, but, like, the torrent of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153likes” eventually came through.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Regrettably, in my hearing (but not listening to) of Rosie O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell, I violated a commandment that reads: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Thou shalt listen to the message and forget the little annoyances.” My behavior is similar to that of the English teacher who overlooks an otherwise brilliant treatise because of the writer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s penmanship or habit of circling the dots in her \u00e2\u20ac\u0153i\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.” Or the art teacher who assigns a low grade to a pupil who showed imagination but was unable to keep things between the lines.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Trying to hone the spoken language in a third decade of teaching speech, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d often come home discouraged and asked my wife, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why am I like still teaching?”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The imprecise overuse of words such as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like” can lead to a word inflation, in which words lose their potency. We would hope that in the event of earth-shaking information, people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t merely tune out the speaker because of strange mannerisms.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 That would be like regrettable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Rosie O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell appeared recently on the Tonight Show. As an unbelievably wealthy and influential woman who gets listened to, she rattled off some information about other celebrities. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Thanks to a maddening mannerism of hers, I cannot remember the subject matter. What I paid attention to–and tallied–was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}