I think that the "like" in these constructions is "clutter language" like
"um" and "er." It has no grammatical purpose, only a social one. It marks
the user as a teenager and as someone who wants to be seen as a cool person.

It's also habit-forming. I notice that college students continue to use it
even after they have left teenagehood. It's interesting to me to see what
happens when the students become student teachers at age 21 or 22. They
nearly always drop the "like" without being told. However, as their college
supervisor I do sometimes need to issue gentle reminders.

Bill

>I've been wondering about the like-construction too.  I have noticed a
>tendency among my students to incorporate direct quotations into their own
>speech and writing rather than rephrasing thoughts to fit seamlessly into
>the grammatical structure of a new sentence.  The like-construction
>facilitates this tactic.  One writes or says, "He was like 'Oh wow!"
>rather than "He was very impressed."  Have others noticed this
>undigested-chunks tendency?
>
>The use of a direct quotation as the object of the preposition like seems
>grammatically intelligible to me.  Stylistically, I think it sends the
>message that the speaker or writer is not very adept at manipulating the
>language.  The use of "went" to introduce an interjection -- perhaps that
>is influenced by "The pig goes oink!"  Around here, however, I think
>people use BE more often to introduce the like construction.  I'm also
>curious what other ATEGers think about "like."
>
>
>On Tue, 23 Jan 2001, Janet Castilleja wrote:
>
>> Dear Ategers
>>
>> How would you folks analyze these sentences?
>>
>> 1.  He went, like, "you're crazy!"
>>
>> 2.  He was all like "You're crazy!"
>>
>> Janet Castilleja
>> Heritage College
>> Toppenish WA
>>
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William J. McCleary
3247 Bronson Hill Road
Livonia, NY 14487
716-346-6859

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