| From: | Ed Heil <edheil@...> |
|---|---|
| Date: | Monday, June 28, 1999, 21:07 |
That's called the "quotative like." "He's like..." has a subtle semantic difference from "He said..." in that the former introduces not mere quotation but actual impersonation, usually complete with paralinguistic features like tone of voice and facial expression. It's semantically transparent, of course: when you introduce an impersonation with "He was like..." you are attempting to give an impression of what the person was actually "like" while saying such a thing. + Ed Heil ---------------------- edheil@postmark.net + | "What matter that you understood no word! | | Doubtless I spoke or sang what I had heard | | In broken sentences." --Yeats | +----------------------------------------------------+ Steg Belsky wrote:> On Sun, 27 Jun 1999 16:51:08 -0500 Patrick Dunn > <tb0pwd1@...> writes: > >I've also noticed a replacement of "said" with the forms "like" and > >"is > >all." For example: > > >"So I'm all, Get over it, and she's like, yeah, right, so I'm all, > >puhleaze, and she's all talk to the hand." > > > >--Patrick > > I've always heard this as "*was* like", with "be" in past tense - i.e. > "so she was like, 'hey, get away from me!' so i was like, > 'what-ever'...". > > > -Stephen (Steg) > > ___________________________________________________________________ > Get the Internet just the way you want it. > Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! > Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. >