Like
Hitchens vs the young
January 15, 2010 13 comments
Christopher Hitchens doesn’t like the contemporary use of the word like. His profound sociological investigations of young people have, however, given him an idea as to why it used:
[T]he little cringe and hesitation and approximation of “like” are a help to young people who are struggling to negotiate the shoals and rapids of ethnic identity, the street, and general correctness.
What is “general correctness”? Is Hitchens struggling to say “political correctness” but shying away from it at the last moment? Anyway, Hitchens’s diagnosis proceeds:
To report that “he was like, Yeah, whatever” is to struggle to say “He said” while minimizing the risk of commitment.
I don’t think this is, like, right? To say “He was like, Yeah, whatever”, is to give a beautifully economical report of the person’s entire demeanour and attitude. Hitchens has cited some linguists pointing out that the construction “does not require the quote to be of actual speech (as ‘she said’ would, for instance). A shrug, a sigh, or any of a number of expressive sounds as well as speech can follow it”. But even when what sounds like speech does follow, it is not necessarily meant to be understood as more-or-less-accurate reported speech. For he was like, Yeah, whatever, it is entirely possible (or even probable?) that the person did not actually say “Yeah, whatever” — there is a creative ambiguity in play as to whether he was like introduces accurate reported speech or a very rough précis of speech or even merely a verbal description of gesture (he might not have said anything at all) — so that to replace it with Hitchens’s suggestion, the flat “He said”, could well be to commit a falsehood.
In sum, he was like and he said do not actually mean the same thing; and Hitchens is like, I do not approve of this youthspeak that I have not made sufficient efforts to understand?
Exactly… “he was like” is not just the precursor to a quotation, as “he said” would be. It almost seems to be like the wobbly picture and dreamy music they used to use to signal a flashback on films. “He was like”… and then they’re taking you back to that moment and re-enacting it, so you see the whole mood of the episode, whether or not you get the exact wording.
From what I can tell, this extends right up to my peer group (late 30s, early 40s) so Hitchens has been missing out on a lot of things to disapprove of :)
And did you see that one on Top of the Pops? I swear he wasn’t wearing any trousers! Shorter Hitchens: get off my lawn…hic!
Certainly not “he said”. Perhaps “he projected an attitude of”? Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it?
Didn’t Stephen Fry put this verbal tic into Room 101? I remember thinking at the time that Fry’s nomination smacked of haughty middle-brow pedantry. At least he got there earlier than Hitchens. Oliver Kamm will be with us inside the decade.
(I’m not really happy with my use of the word “pedantry” above, since I think that to call someone a “pedant” suggests that (s)he has noticed a small error and made an excessive fuss about it. Whereas I don’t think that this use of the word “like” is in any sense an error. But “snobbishness” won’t do either. So I dunno.)
I like this bit:
Whenever I’m struggling with a tongue-twister like ‘said’, I always like to throw in a dipthong and a whole extra syllable.
You know I was completely like, Yeah, Whatever, about Hitchens’ whole piece, and just enjoying the preceding comments, but then I popped over to read it and came to:
Okay so, like, what? So, “like” is a product of a negotiation of ethnic identity, the street, and general correctness? And “young black people” are excluded from this particular negotiation because they have alternatives? Christ, that’s a pretty noisy pair of hypotheses to burp out into the open. (Don’t you want to launch an entire unspeak investigation of “more challenging”?)
But, really, Hitchens is attacking something that suggests cringing and hesitation, a verbal mannerism that “minimiz[es] the risk of commitment” – but then promptly writes: “This could be why young black people don’t seem to employ “like” quite as often, having more challenging vernaculars such as “Nome sane?”—which looks almost Latin.)”
Yes!
Coming on the heels of “fail” I thought this was going to be about use of “like” that has spread in the wake of Facebook, as a less committed version of “this,” signalling simple approbation on comments threads. As such, I might nominate it for word of the year.
Actually, “like” here (a usage that dates back at least to early Scooby Doo) unequivocally signals approximation, doesn’t it? It’s a warning regarding the encoding of information that follows, advertising its content as reception and interpretation: thick description. And where the reported speech is “whatever,” there’s a strong connotation that the reporter finds the apathy they are reporting reprehensible.
So, like, Hitchens goes Duh and Steven’s like Fail!
Hitchens: ‘This could be why young black people don’t seem to employ “like” quite as often, having more challenging vernaculars…’
Ah, all those “young black people” Hitchens meets on the Washington and Manhattan cocktail circuit. Plenty invited to these rum affairs, no doubt. “Would you like ice in that treble, nome sane, sir?”
and Hitchens is like, I do not approve of this youthspeak that I have not made sufficient efforts to understand?
Said with rising intonation at the end of the sentence-absolutely fluent youthspeak/valleygirlese,Stephen.
So I was like,”gag me with a spoon!”….Whateverrr!
Shouldn’t that be ‘Whateverrr?‘
The Yeti agrees:
http://www.defectiveyeti.com/archives/001761.html