Truth is, whether you think you’re a linguistics major or a linguistics minor, everyone, whether you notice or not, uses “like” in sentences where you, like, didn’t need to. Hearing yourself say it, you wince and vow against it, yet most people still say it subconsiously like every five minutes! Using “like” as a slang interjection has actually gone on for longer than you would guess.
Lots believe that the 1982 hit song Valley Girl by Moon Unit Zappa set the trend for this way of saying “like”; at one point in the song Zappa sang, “It’s like, barf me out.” The song represents Southern California Valspeak. Could you guess that the slang use of “like” has dated as far back as 1928 in a newspaper cartoon? The first piece of evidence depicts two women. They said, “What’s he got – an awfice?” “No, he’s got like a loft.”
“Like” is an amazingly multipurposeful word. It can be used as a verb, a noun, an adjective, an adverb, a preposition, an interjection and a conjunction.
Do you, like, think it’s okay to use “like” as a slang word, or do you hate when people use it like that? Leave a comment below!
I am guilty of occasionally using "like" as a replacement for "um". I usually catch myself saying "It's like…" but then I finish my sentence so my use of "like" isn't quite a slang word.
And luckily, Calgarians aren't known to use Valspeak, so I suppose using 'like' isn't a huge problem. I think using improper grammar and misusing words is more annoying 🙂
Then again, I'm not the best writer in the world so I should stop talking! Anyway, great post, it was really informative 😀