What’s the origin of this phrase, a staple of my teenage children’s speech, meaning (roughly) “I said…”? Why are grown-ups (those over 40) generally immune?
I was [acting] like [this]: {proceeds to reenact by speaking the lines once again, with original attitude and etc}
Not that I know from historical insight, but it seemed self-explanatory to me. The first time I heard it, I was like “Oh, I get it, that’s what I would’ve seen and heard you saying if I’d been there at the time.”
::ahunter3 recreates tone of voice and facial expression and body language of the event in question while speaking::
FWIW, the phrase puts me in mind of hip talk that was allegedly spoken by beatniks back in the late 50s-early 60s. I never knew any real beatniks* but the ones on TV used to say things like, “Yeah man, I, like, really dig that. Like, you know what I mean?” “Like” was thrown in as kind of a spacer in the jargon.
For those of you still wet behind the ears, beatniks were the predecessors of hippies*. They were characterized by goatees, bongo drums and berets. Bob Denver, before he achieved lasting celebrity as Gilligan, played Maynard G. Krebs, the beatnik sidekick to Dwayne Hickman’s character, Dobie Gillis, in the eponymous television series, “The Dobie Gillis Show”.
For those of you who don’t know what hippies are I can only say that there were elements of American culture that preceded disco* dancing.
***Don’t ask. You don’t want to know.
Oh My God!
Like, you know?
Actually, Ahunter has it right, from what I remember growing up in The Valley, mid 80’s.
And “go” and “went” replace “say” and “said”.
"So I go, "She went “I was like…” ".
OHMIGOD OHMIGOD. IT WAS SOOOOO EMBARRASSING.
Gawd, teenage girls are horrible creatures.
And the ever-popular:
Like, Wow!
This is an example of how language evolves. Each generation gets a slightly altered version of the language during their early years, and then tries out new variations. This appears to be a new mood, such as the subjunctive, in this case tranporting the speaker’s frame of reference to a past event, where they can then speak in the present tense, but it is understood by the listener that they are listening to an replay of that person’s attitude at that time. Whether or not this becomes a permanent part of the language (hope not) will be determined by both the current users (how long will they continue this grammatical device before they get tired of it and move on to something else?) and future generations (if the device gains widespread and enduring usage, will their kids consider it part of standard speech, and build on it, or drop it in favor of some new method). You examine any language’s grammar rules, and you’ll find lots of standards that were originally slang or generational wordplay that served some valid language purpose, and therefore was adapted by future generations to be part of the proper language. (For example, the subjunctive mood in traditional English was done with verbs, such as “Would that I will be in New York in the spring,” but that’s fallen into disuse, and now we’d more likely replace “would that” with “hopefully”, even though that’s not considered “good grammar” currently.)
Thanks, RexKatWA. I think you characterized it perfectly as a new mood, although that won’t make listening any easier. The effect of “I was like… she was like…” is to reduce any story to a series of quotations with no real narrative. In extreme cases, facial expressions substitute for words. "So she was like (grimace). Then he was like (raised eyebrow), etc. Anyway, thanks again for the insights.
Ken, you have it just right. Not only is the style tiresome, but it is also fatuous and vapid, in that it simply replays a “conversation,” it doesn’t say anything in its own right. There is no point to these stories, save the assumption that the listener would feel the same thing as the teller in the same situation. To sit and listen to these self-absorbed recitations of someone’s life is hell to me. I want to yell at these people, “So what’s the fucking point? Why are you telling me this? Do you have something to say now?” I’d add that (sorry to say) there are many people who are over 40 who talk this way. And one other thing I’ve noticed - it seems that a lot more females speak this way than males. Anyone else notice that?
I think there is a whole other dimension to this.
Teenagers say ‘like’ so much because their brains have not yet developed the restraining ability that allows them to keep their speech up with their thoughts. Therefore, their thoughts get way ahead of them and they have to use ‘like’ as a placeholder.
“Like” in this context often does not indicate what was literally said, but to a person’s thoughts or their body language. “She was like, ‘Get AWAY from me!’” might mean that the woman in question literally said those words, but often means that she looked like that was what she was thinking. Get it? She didn’t actually SAY it, but it was “like” she did.
Speaking from a teenage boy’s point of view, I, like, totally think ya’ll are, like, waay overanalyzing this quirk in our language. Like, thinkin’ hurts dude.