[Magdalen] Like I Was Puzzled.

[Sally Davies]

Pervasive here, too. This habit started, I guess, with kids and teenagers
but has spread to older generations and from wherever it originated
(California? London?) to a wide variety of English speaking contexts.

The usual form here is "I was like...".

I think that people have taken to this expression because it is somewhat
distancing and seems not to commit one to a truth position. I was "like
that" - but I wasn't "that".  Maybe it's too much of a stretch to conclude
something about the culture in which such tentative self-positioning seems
to thrive...?

"After that, I replied...", or "and then, I did X"  sounds not only more
formal but more documentary! The "I was like" OTOH, avoids the bother of
finding the right verb. It sets up a sentence (if one could call it that)
which could go anywhere. I could be, like, saying something, or it's like I
could have done something, or maybe I could even be, like so wasted I can't
actually recall what I was like.

And sad/denialist as it may be, when you hang around with kids enough of
the time, you do, like, start borrowing their expressions in self-defence...

Language evolves...or maybe unravels...

Sally D

On Wednesday, 3 December 2014, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
> I've had several people visiting my home recently whose every other
> sentence
> begins with "Like I was...." of some such.  These were not teenagers,  but
> adults in their 40's and 50's.
>
> I've been aware of this rage for describing usually something in the  past
> with descriptions beginning with "Like", but I wasn't aware such  usage
> has crept so far into the general USA population.  I have no clue  about
> this
> phenomenon in other English speaking areas of the world.
>
> This "like" business has become chronic and pervasive in the USA, and
> my question is about whether this is a fad, or marks  a chronic change
> in spoken English.  If it is long term, it demonstrates a  trivialization
> of
> the language IMHO.
>
> Anyone have any thoughts about this "like" usage and predictions  about
> its continued usage?
>
>
> David S.
>