On the matter of "like" as a preposition or conjunction, according to
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage "like" has been used as
a conjunction since the 14th century.  It's found in such writers as
Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Churchill.  Jespersen lists examples from
Kipling, Bennett, Gissing, Wells, Shaw, Maugham, etc.  MWDEU cites an
1828 grammar as the first published work to reject conjunctive "like"
and notes that by the early 20th century a large number of standard
reference works had jumped on board.  The MW editors express chagrin of
the fact that Webster's 2nd opposed "like" as a conjunction, writing,
"[The prohibition] was inserted , we are embarrassed to say, in spite of
copious evidence of standard use then in our files."  The prohibition,
then, appears to be a nineteenth century rejection of a form that had
been in use for about five hundred years.  It survives, as such
proscriptions tend to, in school grammars and style manuals even though
it has no basis in the grammar of English.  In other words, the idea
that "like" can't be used as a conjunction is misguided.  MWDEU goes on
then to give four pages of quotations of examples from Standard English
writing that use "like" as a conjunction.

Herb Stahlke


Subject: Re: Explaining "A WAY"

Have we given up on "like" as only a preposition? I'm still insisting
(for the most correct level of usage)...

Jane Saral
[log in to unmask]

>>> [log in to unmask] 06/08/04 14:34 PM >>>
Fellow Linguists and Other Fond Folks,

Look at the following sentences:

                                                1. He looks like he used
to.
                                                2. He looks the way he
used to.

How would you label the phrase "the way" in sentence 2? Is it a
subordinator? It seems to function that way, much as "like" does in the
first sentence.

Your turn.

Marshall Myers

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