Here's something for everyone who, while taking a foreign language, tried to trick other people into thinking they were more proficient by using that language's pausing words (like "euh" in French). I did this through all of my French oral exams.
Also, this wikipedia entry brings up an interesting question, has the word "like" become a disfluency in our language; has its presence become merely a pause in thought? Personally, I don't think so. I use the word "like" because it's hard to translate thoughts into words and sometimes I need signifying words that show my thoughts are going through translation and should not be taken at face value. I've also realized that I use the word "like" in written communication. Which hopefully means it's more than just a filler word, but I've seen "uh" and "um" used in written communication as well. Blog comments bring all these things out in us and almost don't count as real written communication at all. This is what I'm interested in right now, how written communication is becoming less formal and more reflective of how we communicate verbally.
(I've been reading Language Log this afternoon and I just found an entry called Like is, like, not really like if you will. Sheds a little more light on my vague explanation of the use of "like.")
Posted by linnea at June 18, 2006 3:13 PMI agree with you about "like," Linnea, because if it really were similar to "um," you would be able to replace it without any change in meaning. But if you change a statement such as "Duh. Like, whatever," to "Duh. Um, whatever," the meaning does change.I think "like" is more of a social/educational/group indicator of identity rather than a space filler. Or maybe it's a space filler for a certain group. But the class identity connotations are still there.
Posted by: funke at June 18, 2006 3:38 PMi was going to say someting of moment, something of importance but i lost my train of thought...
Posted by: dai at June 26, 2006 8:24 PM