Teen slang: What's, like, so wrong with like?
Teenage slang - do I not like that? Actress Emma Thompson says young people make themselves sound stupid by speaking slang outside of school. But while the use of the word "like" might annoy her, it fulfils a useful role in everyday speech.
"That's, like, so unfair."
One response to Emma Thompson's comments likely to trigger a rush of steam from her ears.
The Oscar winner has spoken out against the use of sloppy language. She says people who speak improperly make her feel "insane" and she criticises teenagers for using words such as "like" and "innit".
But is peppering one's sentences with "like" such a heinous crime against the English tongue?
Language experts are more understanding of teen culture than Thompson, pointing out the word's many uses. It's the unconventional uses that are probably getting the actress hot under the collar. One of the most common is using "like" as a filler word in a conversation.
But fillers are a way we all stall for time when speaking and historically always have. It has nothing to do with sloppiness, says John Ayto, editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang.
"It is not a lazy use of language, that is a common fallacy among non-linguists," he says. "We all use fillers because we can't keep up highly-monitored, highly-grammatical language all the time. We all have to pause and think.
"We have always used words to plug gaps or make sentences run smoothly. They probably did in Anglo Saxon times, it's nothing new."
But crucially, we often use non-word fillers, such at "um" and "ah". The fact that "like" is an actual word could be why Thompson doesn't like it.
Using 'um' may seem more correct to Emma Thompson because using 'like' as a filler is not a feature of her language"
"When words break out from a specific use and become commonly used in a different way, people come down on them," says Dr Robert Groves, editor on the English team at Collins Dictionaries.
"Using 'um' may seem more correct to Emma Thompson because using 'like' as a filler is not a feature of the language she uses. The more disassociated you are from the group that uses a word in a different way, the more that use stands out. It will be invisible to teenagers."
Another common use of "like" by young people is as a quotative, which is a grammatical device to mark reported speech. For example: "She was like, 'you aren't using that word correctly' and I was like, 'yes I am'."
It is also commonly used to indicate a metaphor or exaggeration. "I, like, died of embarrassment when you told me to stop using slang." Alternatively, it is employed to introduce a facial expression, gesture or sound. A speaker may say "I was like..." and then hold their hands up, shrug or roll their eyes.
While certain uses of language - such as fillers - have probably always been around, the appropriation of "like" in this context can be traced to a familiar source of so much modern day slang- California's Valley Girls.
I, like, so wish she'd just give it a rest "Many of these uses of 'like' originate in America," says Dr Groves. "They were probably introduced into British English through the media, like films and television."
Using "like" in this way is also about signalling membership of a club, says English language specialist Professor Clive Upton, from the University of Leeds.
"If they [young people] do deploy the sort of language they're using on the streets in formal settings then it could well be a disadvantage to them but at other times it's quite clearly the way they get along, the way that they signal they belong in a group, the way that they fit in.
"And we all do that in our professional lives as well. We've got all our acronyms and our little words that we use that send a signal - I'm one of the club."
Thompson just isn't part of the "like" club.
Like it or not, the way we speak creates an impression on other people. A person with a good vocabulary is generally perceived to me more intelligent than someone who has a poor vocabulary. Elocution is important and should be taught and enforced at school. If you cannot control the way you speak in an formal environment like a school, then how are you going to control your language in an interview? And the way you speak whilst seeking job is just as important as how you dress.
Normally I would agree with most things that Emma Thompson says, but it annoys me that the views that she and Stephen Fry espouse (who also put his tuppence worth about the English language in the Radio Times recently) are given so much airspace. Just who are these people and who gave them the power to make judgements on others? Being a lovely-dovey from Oxbridge does not make you a world-reknowned scholar. Like - Emma - tune out.
It niggles me to hear people, not just children, using words such as "anythink", "somethink" and "nothink", it is quite widespread. I am no expert myself but I try to stick with the basics I had drummed into me at school all those years ago, when education had some discipline.
Comparing "like" to "um" and "ah" as a filler/thought pause is okay, but there's one major difference. The listener can easily filter out the "um" and "ah" because they have no meaning. But "like" does, so the listener has to process "like" in the sentence's context to determine if it's relevant or not. This hinders comprehension because it has to be done before the full sentence is known. "I smell like a rat" means what? I stink, or I suspect a double-cross? Compare that with "I smell um a rat". No double meaning there.
I don't really mind when a teenager uses "like" in a slang context, but it drives me mad when a fully grown adult "tasks" me with something to do or "cascades" some piece of information to me. Why can't they just "ask" or "tell" me?
It's a good job Emma didn't live in the late 16th Century/ early 17th Century. There was a guy running around back then who didnt use language as his peers did, he made up words, changed the structure of how he used these new made up words and flouted the conventional thinking on most aspects of English. He was called William Shakespeare... Language is not a set of rules, its a way of communication. The one constant thing with a thriving language is change.
One of my pet hates is the use of "well" at the beginning of a sentence, as demonstrated by many roving news reporters. It's completely superfluous.
Not everyone talks the same! Most of us don't converse remotely like any example in this article. Please stop trying to put everyone into a box. Every one of us is different and all of us should appreciate this.
The worst perpetrator I've found for "fillers" is "y'know". It's almost like a nervous tick, the worst being for people not used to being interviewed and having to stall for time.
Emma's like cool, but like so out of touch, right?
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