[Magdalen] Like I Was Puzzled.

[Lesley de Voil]

I always think that this sort of construction is used to avoid cognitive effort. In my young days, my mother jumped on us whenever we used 'um' and 'errr' for exactly the same reason.

-----Original Message-----
From: "Sally Davies" <sally.davies at gmail.com>
Sent: ‎4/‎12/‎2014 6:56
To: "Cantor03 at aol.com" <Cantor03 at aol.com>; "magdalen at herberthouse.org" <magdalen at herberthouse.org>
Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Like I Was Puzzled.

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.
>