That quotative development is another interesting wrinkle.  A lot of grammatical and lexical change takes place on the basis of metaphor, that is, speakers trying to be more expressive.  But then the more expressive expression becomes hackneyed and that gradually wears down to almost nothing.  Take English “have”, which meant “possess, hold” in OE but has become a perfect auxiliary with for nearly all speakers reduces to schwa, as in “woulda” and for some speakers simply drops out as in the non-standard perfect aspect “I seen him”.

 

Herb

 

 

Stahlke, Herbert F.W. wrote:

Marshall,

 

Synchronically, I’d argue that there’s a register difference, as you suggest, between A and B and that “as” and “like” are both subordinators.  In C, “the way” is the head noun modified by an asyndetic relative clause, that is, a clause that doesn’t start with “that” or one of the wh-relative words.  Functionally, “the way” may be on its way to becoming a subordinator in its own right, but I don’t think it’s shifted that far yet. 

 

Diachronically it gets interesting because “like” comes from Old English “lic”, which meant “body”.  We derive both “like” and the suffix –ly from “lic.”  That is, a noun has gradually morphed into a /conjunction/preposition and into a suffix.  “The way” is acting as if it’s at the beginning of such a change.  That suggests that at some time, and, perhaps, for some speakers already, “the way” has ceased to be an ordinary noun phrase.

 

Herb

 

 

 

Fellow Grammarians,

Let me ask about a related subject. Look at the following constructions. I consider them to be paraphrases of each other. Granted, the first is probably more acceptable in academic English, the second is more conversational (some of you may remember the Winston cigarette commercial: "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should. It may be bad grammar, but it's great taste."). The third, I'm not sure about.

I see the first as using "as" as a subordinator. In the second, I see "like" also as a subordinator. What I am not sure about is the third one. Is "the way" acting as a subordinator? They all seem to have the same structure, but do they?

                                  A. He thinks as I do.
                                  B. He thinks like I do.
                                  C. He thinks the way I do.

Marshall

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Herb,

Thanks for your quick and learned reply.

Isn't "like" also being used as a quotative as in the following sentence?

                                     I saw him on the corner, and I said, 'Like, what are you doing here,' and he says,                   
                                     'Like, I'm waiting for Mary.'  

Marshall