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Can 'like' be accepted as formal usage, as when it means 'meaning/acting like this' ?
Opening the present, I am like, 'oh my God'
Hearing such weak arguments, the judge was like, [here the speaker supplies body language, rolling eyes, slack jaw]
The problem with it, and the reason it's dismissed as childish, is that it implies the speaker is too lazy or lacking the ability to provide a full and accurate accounting of what happened.
But often you don't have time, or don't have good enough memory for accurate accounting. Or the context does not require it.
In formal conversations, 'like' crops up all the times, and sometimes liberally and profusely, such as most notably in the fast bubbling speech of NPR's Terry Gross.' (or is Fresh Air only semi-formal?) But hardly at all in literature.
I say give it fair and judicious uses, both speech and writing. What d' y'all think?
Its use is informal. Terry Gross's use would clearly signal the informal tone of Fresh Air. Even in that context, I expect she would minimize its use. I would.
In writing, reserve this use for dialog and the very most informal contexts: texting, and the like.
It also signal's youth. That makes Tery Gross's use a bit out of place. But perhaps she was conversing with a young person at the time. Was she?
no, Gross does that with older writers and actors, on serious subjects. I was slightly taken aback hearing her at first, but over time I got used to it and expect it from her.
It's good for when you want to make a point quickly on which you expect no challenge from the other person, avoiding spending too much time.
True, never heard it from, say, Hillary Clinton, or Henry Kissinger.
I don't see how I can defend my first impulse, "it's so informal that it's wrong". And I'm sure that in aloud I use it from time to time, perhaps often (how would I know for sure?). But I'm with Glenn; in writing, where I have time to think both before and after I choose my words, I reserve it for dialogue and special effects.
A similar idiom is "go", as in "so he went 'Whaaat??', and I go 'We're outa here', and they're like 'Whoa, no way!!', and I go 'Uh-huh, fer sure!', and...".
I'm with the majority here on the use of like. Likewise Bob's examples of go and went. I would never use the words that way in writing. But they are used that way in so much informal speech these days, especially by younger people.
When I was teaching, I'd often use those words simply to get to the conversational level of students. Not so much in formal instruction, but when I would relate anecdotes or jokes in class. For example, "The church was like, really leaning on Galileo to recant. And so he did, but under his breath he goes 'Eppur si muove'."
They'd sense when I was switching to this informal conversational style, and enjoyed it. I could sense I had a higher level of attention to what was being said, compared to, say, the boring theoretical stuff. It was just one of many successful tactics I picked up after years in the business.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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