-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
What's up with, like, english nowadays?
- Thread starter Peterthumpa
- Start date
- Status
Sir_Crocodile
Member
The episode of scooby doo mystery incorporated where harlan ellison rants at shaggy for using "Like" so much is the best
Now you'll, like, notice and it will, like, drive you, like, mad.
If its living, does that mean I can kill it?
Dandy Crocodile
Member
Potentially. Look at what has happened and is happening to many Native American and Australian languages.
If it bleeds we can kill it.
exmachina64
Banned
I don't mind how it sounds as much as when it's written.
Sure, Latin's a dead language.
John Kowalski
Banned
No man you mean regardful.
people who say "like" constantly come off as sounding dumber than people who don't, for sure.
You can try.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Like, um, what's an interjection?
Cybrwzrd
Banned
What is so wrong with saying "like" alot? What difference does it make as long as there meaning is properly conveyed. Irregardless if they use like to much, it doesn't have an affect on you're grammar. When you say things like this than you sound like a grammar nazi.
Tongue in cheek
liliththepale
Banned
Like is by far my favorite discourse marker. If you're uncomfortable with filler words and discourse markers that doesn't mean you're smarter, it means you're less sociable. It's not a good look.
This post is genius.Please, benevolent mods, tag this bunny fellow!
Hearing this in conversation vs reading it encapsulates the entire thread.
God Dayumm
Banned
But the superlative is irregardless
Peterthumpa
Member
I think I wasn't very clear, but hence in my first post the question "do I need to adapt".
I mean, it sounds strange to me since a direct translation to my native language would definitely sound like a teenager or someone grammatically lacking.
If it's ok in english, then no big deal.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
toast pls
Wolf Dawgz
Member
Or perhaps they have trouble with the phonological perception. In real speech, "could've" and "could of' sound eerily similar.
Peterthumpa
Member
It was infuriating since I was literally translating it to portuguese, and I can assure you, it does NOT sound as a standard and acceptable "filler" word as this thread explained to me when doing that. It sounds childish and even in very informal conversations it wouldn't be widely acceptable.
"Jesus" was just to empathize. I'm failing to see your point here, got out of your mummy's belly reciting Shakespeare?
John Kowalski
Banned
goddamn
Standard filler in English, yes, but not its direct translation into Portuguese. Some things you can't do a literal translation, you have to relate it to behavior. Using 'like' doesn't make sense, and yet people do it, because it simply became a habit of speech.
Strangelove77
Member
How fucking dare they.
Peterthumpa
Member
We obviously do, but the literal translation for "like" to portuguese would be "tipo", and that word being used as a filler word is definitely linked with teenagers.
However, there are other acceptable words that basically mean what the "like" is for english speakers. It's just that, coincidentally, translating "like" to the exact same word in portuguese made me believe that it wasn't widely acceptable as everyone here explained me.
Well as you can see in this thread, a lot of younger people do it (but the behavior has been around long enough that some people do it beyond their teenage years), and it's well known, but there are also people who mock it and look down upon it as philistine in nature. So now you know.
Lionel Richie
Member
That's not right. Using "tipo" and other words alike are what is called "vício de linguagem", for which I don't know the exact translation in english despite studying this shit all the time in my journalism major. Pretty much anyone who is untrained at speaking in public uses it in some form or another without even realizing. Maybe not "tipo", but some form of informal mannerism is hard to escape.
You're never too old to use "tipo"
PeakPointMatrix
Member
Peterthumpa
Member
That's not right. Using "tipo" and other words alike are what is called "vício de linguagem", for which I don't know the exact translation in english despite studying this shit all the time in my journalism major. Pretty much anyone who is untrained at speaking in public uses it in some form or another without even realizing. Maybe not "tipo", but some form of informal mannerism is hard to escape.
You're never too old to use "tipo"
Exactly, for sure maybe not "tipo", and that's unfortunately how I was mentally translating it while "eavesdropping" the conversation.
Silent Chief
Member
Most of it isn't even filler. It's part of a colloquial narrative technic in which the speaker imitates the person he quotes. I used that a lot when I was a kid. In French.
I'm like, "You guys are crazy!"
I'm like, "You guys are crazy!"
This actually isn't specific to English.
For example in Japanese I often say "ano" and "eto". Seeing as I'm not a native I probably say it more often than most natives, but I still hear it frequently.
It's word filler that just kinda fills the gap in which there might otherwise be awkward silence. Same could be said for "Uhhh" and what not. "Like" occasionally serves an actual purpose in the sentence it's used, because in English we describe things a lot with examples and figurative speech so we say a lot of things are "like" other things.
In all seriousness, it is generally a sign of a lacking vernacular, or a lacking skill in improv speech deliverance.
For example in Japanese I often say "ano" and "eto". Seeing as I'm not a native I probably say it more often than most natives, but I still hear it frequently.
It's word filler that just kinda fills the gap in which there might otherwise be awkward silence. Same could be said for "Uhhh" and what not. "Like" occasionally serves an actual purpose in the sentence it's used, because in English we describe things a lot with examples and figurative speech so we say a lot of things are "like" other things.
In all seriousness, it is generally a sign of a lacking vernacular, or a lacking skill in improv speech deliverance.
There is nothing lazy about filler words, they provide a very useful linguistic function, in fact, they're almost essential and they exists in most languages.
The reason you don't hear them very often in formal language is that they're not really needed if you know exactly what you want to say, but in conversation it's not usual for the speaker to have to think a bit about what they have to say next, and the alternatives are either filler sounds (like 'ummm') or to stop talking altogether (which can be problematic since the other person might not realize you're not done). Neither alternative is superior in my mind.
Filler words are also very useful for people who are not native speakers of the language or suffer from certain types of speech impediments, vilifying them just further marginalize those groups for no good reason.
Yeah, that's so cringe.
Please tell me that this irony was intended?
Vincent Grayson
Member
Aside from the issues with translation, which I totally get, I can't but laugh at so many replies in here.
It's like watching someone discuss the intricacies of their car's engine, and assuming they know what they're saying because they drive a car every day.
I'd highly recommend (if you're still in school) taking a class or two in linguistics. There's a lot of tremendously interesting things to learn about the structure of language and how it gets used across different groups even in the same country where everyone ostensibly speaks the same language.
It's like watching someone discuss the intricacies of their car's engine, and assuming they know what they're saying because they drive a car every day.
I'd highly recommend (if you're still in school) taking a class or two in linguistics. There's a lot of tremendously interesting things to learn about the structure of language and how it gets used across different groups even in the same country where everyone ostensibly speaks the same language.
encephalon
Member
I don't think the use of "like" in English is similar to "ano" or "eeto" in Japanese. Maybe "sa." But I have a feeling I'm forgetting something closer.
Thinking more on it, I don't think it's really all that much like "uhm" or "uhh" in use. You can't stop and say "liiiike" while you collect your thoughts. Nor does it imply hesitation.
Thinking more on it, I don't think it's really all that much like "uhm" or "uhh" in use. You can't stop and say "liiiike" while you collect your thoughts. Nor does it imply hesitation.
Modest Mauser
Member
It's just a filler word OP
Lots of languages have them
Someone can over use it to the point of sounding silly, but that's hardly something to get worked up over
Lots of languages have them
Someone can over use it to the point of sounding silly, but that's hardly something to get worked up over
Stop trying to make fetch happen. It's not going to happen.
Year 2017
So my Dad lives in the sky, like for real, he's powerful man. So dad and I daily visit McDonald's and I am like eating burgers and shit. So he tell me, son I forgive your debts and I am like yoooo, ok sure dad! And he's all like I will keep you from evil, like Amen dad, so we good?
Zipzo and encephalon stated it nicely, but my post seems to have struck a nerve- I'm not arguing the necessity of filler words, nor vilifying anyone. If, in our daily casual conversations, people used "umm" in place of every single "like" I honestly doubt we'd have a disagreement here. Anyone is free to use it as often as they like, but understand that not everyone else will, and for valid linguistic reasons.
Some of you shoukd check out the Mitch Hedberg quote I mentioned... Just saying, it adds levity and context.
It's a pragmatic marker. Every language has them.
In these instances, the word 'like' has stopped meaning 'like' and started to become a grammatical point, like punctuation-spoken-out-loud. Other languages have total non-words as pragmatic markers, like in Singapore 'la' and 'wa' are inserted at random into various sentences.
It's like verbal 'padding'.
It was breaking news in the '60s. Read A Clockwork Orange.
In these instances, the word 'like' has stopped meaning 'like' and started to become a grammatical point, like punctuation-spoken-out-loud. Other languages have total non-words as pragmatic markers, like in Singapore 'la' and 'wa' are inserted at random into various sentences.
It's like verbal 'padding'.
It was breaking news in the '60s. Read A Clockwork Orange.
I think maybe it's an apples to oranges thing, in this case, from language to the other.
English is a very figurative language. We often describe things as completely different things, for example when you want someone to leave a job or something...
"You should leave that sinking ship!"
Being native in English will help you understand that statement immediately, but as an example my wife speaks English quite well but it's pretty rough around the edges, mostly the basic stuff (she's Japanese) and if I said that to her she would be utterly confused.
We do this often in English and I've noticed over time I'm running in to these situations where I'm often just letting these types of statements roll out, and then I have to either explain to her what I meant or just avoid using these types of phrases altogether.
As a result of being a very figurative language, it would actually seem quite fitting that our filler word of choice would be a word such as "like", it's as if you are constantly predisposed to set up a comparison, or a way to alternatively explain something in a 2ndary way. Let's put it in to a realistic context that it would typically be used "improperly" and as a filler.
"I hate that food, like, I can't even eat it without gagging"
Ignoring that these phrases are often grammatically incorrect from a written standpoint, if you actually consider the placement of the word in the spoken phrase, you can see that it's actually sort of preparation for an example of something. Something meant to elaborate on the aforementioned thought. You hate a food. How much do you hate it? So much you can't eat it without gagging. It's like that.
Japanese does not really have this. Trying to speak like this in Japanese is confusing, while it's not unheard of to make a comparisons in speech to make a point, it's not nearly at the level we do it in English.
That being said I think "sa" is only a Tokyo thing, but I wouldn't argue that it maybe closer to "like" than "eto" or "ano". The thing is that "sa" is also used as sort of a lazy ambiguous "meh" as well (sorts).
- Status