Re: CHAT: ...y'know

Raymond A. Brown wrote:

> "Right" is used by some in very much the same way.  But tho this can be
> said with rising pitch, it's quite often said with a falling tone as tho
> the speaker's saying: "So that's that - and you'd better accept it".  The
> response then is simply: "No, not right" - especially if a rarely seen
> student is given a trite excuse for late arrival  :)
>
> Of course, the really determined space fillers will the resort to
> _beginning_ sentences with "Basically......."   I haven't worked out a
> response to this yet.
>
> Basically, it seems to mean symptomatic of sloppy thinking, right, know
> what I mean?
LOL!  Haha, I was going to invoke all these examples as well.  "Y'know"
is
one of the most persistent place holders in American popular speech, and
second to it is "like":  "it was like, man, the most awesome thing I
ever
saw."  "You know what I mean?"  I've been guilty of this last,
especially
in the presense of my husband, who is the strong silent type, and who
often
doesn't respond to a remark you make because he's in such deep thought.
Since I married him, my "you know what I means" have increased at an
embarrassing rate, usually after a silence that follows something I've
said.

        Sally:  There's an X, Y, Z, or some such (I think) interesting
        thing happening.

        Chris:    ....

        Sally:  You know what I mean?

;-)

In my case, the YKWIM seems to be a bid for attention, for an
affirmation
that I have opened my mouth and uttered something I want a response to.

As for "like," I've heard students produce a variation on it with "all":

        And I was like... [gesture of horror, astonishment, insanity...
                           usually an open mouth]
        And I was all...  [same thing]

Some of my colleagues have referred to a mode of speech among our young
folk here that they call "uptalk."  The female friend of I've forgotten
who's post who raised her voice when she was imitating discourse uses a
version of that.  Combine all the other features described above, and
then raise your voice at the end of every declarative statement, as
though
you're asking a question.  It seems to project: "I am not an authority,
I am one of the teenaged gang, I am not asserting myself necessarily, I
am not going to be challenging, I am unsure of what I'm saying..." etc.

I raised this issue in one of my language courses and the students
either
laughed or got angry.  It seems to be a touchy subject, because several
teacher/authorities have counseled some of them to drop this type of
discourse
in the interests of entering a career or an adult manner of speaking.
We
talked about it as a problem, or as a mannerism that seemed to imply
youthfulness and unasssertiveness.  Does anybody know what I'm talking
about?

And you know I went like really ballistic?

Sally