In this virtual paper submitted to the Journal of Pointless Linguistics, I offer a few comments about an American English turn of phrase, or construction, that is becoming increasingly common across all levels of education, class, and gender. It is a feature that has its beginning in spoken dialogue though it is making its way into written texts as well, whether as quotations of an actual spoken dialogue or as a mirror of the dialogic intentions of the writer.

I am referring to the now well-known construction, "I was like," or perhaps more accurately given the punctuation as cue for timing, "I was, like…". This use of "like" is not the same as the many other uses of "like" in spoken dialogue which can convey anything from a "pause to think" ("So, like, when are we going to dinner?") or an indicator of approximation, especially in measurements ("It was like 95 degrees out there!") This use of "like" has a specific context: the recounting of personal experience or feelings.

The construction "I was, like" and its variant "I'm like" is always used either to recount a personal experience (or that of someone else) in the form of dialogue, or actual quoted dialogue of the speaker or someone else. Most of the time the dialogue introduced by "I was like" is not exactly repeated, but is paraphrased. Interestingly, feelings, opinions, and emotional experiences of the speaker are recounted after the "I was like" construction as a piece of dialogue, even if there was no dialogue involved. ("I was, like, how could I possibly do this?" rather than the more direct "How could I possibly do this?") The dialogue fragment after the "I was like" is often acted out with gestures and vocal emphasis, rather than a plain recounting. Among those who use the phrase very often (mostly younger people) you will hear a string of "I was likes" which report a conversation back and forth between two or more speakers which may have never happened, but effectively tells the story. ("I was like, no way I can afford this, and she was like sure you can, and I'm like I'm not sure I really want it all that badly…")

I have observed four dialogic contexts in which the "I was like" and the "I'm like" construction appears. The first is in the recounting of an experience, as I have described. The experience is more likely to be subjective than an actual recounting of an event. ("I dented the fender of my new car and I'm like I just got this car and I'm so pissed off.") The second common use of "I was like" is when the speaker expresses an opinion. ("I was like, I don't think that is such a great idea…") which invites a string of "I was likes" as the opinion is entered into debate. The third use, which is related, expresses a past opinion, expressed in the form of quoted spoken dialogue, whether it was a real dialogue or an approximation of what would have been said, or should have been said. ("I was, like, I'm getting out of this s**t.") The last, or fourth usage I will mention introduces a hypothetical dialogue or quote that might be said in the future, or what a person would like to say in the future. ("I'd love to be, like, "Hi Darren!") with the quote acted out in a lively and welcoming fashion. There are a lot of uses I haven't mentioned: the "I was like" is a very versatile, if not so "classy," verbal tool.

The origin of this way of speaking is possibly California "valley-girl" talk of the 1980's; it definitely originated among teenagers, usually female. But in the last decade or so the "I was (am) like" construction has migrated into much more general use, though it is still more common among young females. Young males also use it, and it seems to go across class and racial lines as well. Interestingly, it is migrating up into the talk of older people as well; I have heard people in their thirties and forties using it, even if they don't have children who talk that way. It is very common on television, at least in "unscripted" talk and reality TV shows. What is even more interesting is that it is being adopted even by educated people who would presumably not choose to talk like teenagers. Here is a quote from a (name withheld) highly skilled and educated person, age 48, who has just experienced hostility from new co-workers at a job she was appointed to: "It was bizarre," she says…"It was like being caught in a black hole. I was like, "Wow, what happened?""

What fascinates me is not only the ubiquity of the phrase, but the usefulness of it. It seems to take the place of a lot of other words which would have to be used to say the same thing. What did "I was like" replace? I have tried to "retrofit" the "I was like" quotes to what would have to be said before the phrase entered English casual talk. "My thoughts were…." or "I was astonished at what happened," or "I felt as though…". All of these sound rather formal compared to "I was like" followed by the paraphrased quote.

I myself do not use the "I was like" construction and I am actually not quite sure how to use it. This may be because of too much literary education, or verbal geekiness, or just being too old to get it right. But I'm sure that if I spent enough time among the people who use it, which is most Americans under the age of thirty, I would find it creeping into my own spoken discourse. I'm sure that sooner or later I will utter it. Is this a bad thing or a good thing? Is it a symptom of the Degeneracy of Modern Language or is it simply an evolving way of speaking which is morally and linguistically neutral? I'm like, I don't know.

The Electron will take a short break and be back, if all goes well, in the first week of August.

Posted at 3:34 am | link