BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: GUEST,displaced camelotian
Date: 22 Jul 04 - 07:27 PM

heric, this is different. And dumber.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 22 Jul 04 - 06:48 PM

They used to make fun of a similar trait on the Rockford Files. There was one episode where a neophyte, wet-behind-the-ears PI but clearly junior Rockford would imitate Rockford's language and style quirks but change them a little. If memory serves (which it doesn't) Rockford repeatedly said "The thing of it is, is < pause >." The kid repeatedly said "The thing about that is that."

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Jul 04 - 06:41 PM

I had a look at that picture of Kylie Mole, and it's put me off supper. Well, for awhile...

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: GUEST,Displaced Camelotian
Date: 22 Jul 04 - 06:38 PM

Am I the only one to notice "is is that"? It's been the RULE, statistically, on TV news & talk shows for several years now.

Examples:

"The reality is, is that the economy is doing pretty well."

"The only solution is is that we need to tighten security."

Sitcoms don't use it because they're scripted!

Don't believe me? Start listening!

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Jul 04 - 06:23 PM

"Awesome" is a commonplace word of approval here. Young people say it as casually as adult Americans say "good" or a Frenchman would say "bon."

Sample dialogue: (I work in a college post office.)

STUDENT: Can you sell me a stamp?
CLERK (ME): Yes.
STUDENT: Awesome!

I kind of like it. It makes me feel like I'm Superman because I can sell a stamp.

But really, this is trivial. My real problem is that my own son will hardly talk to me at all.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 22 Jul 04 - 04:50 PM

Since we're airing language pet peeves, the one that sends me up a wall is the sort-of semi-comical apology, "My bad!" Yuck!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: JennieG
Date: 22 Jul 04 - 03:39 AM

I am wondering when "absolutely" replaced "yes". It's very popular at the momnent!
And "can I grab such and such" or "I'll just grab such and such" instead of "may I have such and such".

All these changes to the language are interesting....but can also be irritating!

Cheers
JennieG back at work this week after 3 weeks away from the darling petals

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: JennyO
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 08:54 AM

I found a picture of Kylie Mole in all her glory here. You can click on the picture to make it bigger.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 11:18 PM

Kylie Mole is really the perfect name for such a girl. It has the ring of vacuity.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: GUEST,Mitch
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 09:33 PM

Hahaha , the only one that ever sounded funny speaking that way was the typical 80's teenage girl character "Kylie Mole" from the Australian comedy show "the Comedy Company" . She had influenced just about evey Australian teen from 1988-90' to imitate her by saying "She goes , she goes , she goes ...She just goes..." , "What a bogan!" ect. She also influenced a generation of gum-chewers who use to fiddle with the gum as they were chewing it . Even to this day a great deal of high-schoolers still use her words and ways .

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Feb 04 - 03:32 PM

There was an interview on NPR yesterday with a woman who teaches at (Stanford?) who is doing serious research into speech patterns of teenage girls, especially in California. She is documenting details like vowel changes, and notes that the more extreme vowel changes are used to express social status and 'set trends'.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: GUEST,Wordless Woman
Date: 24 Feb 04 - 03:01 PM

Like as the "must say" word has gone far beyond teen girls. I'm beginning to hear more adults speak the same way. A woman who studies word trends was a guest on a radio program dedicated to grammar. She explained that *generally* like was a substitute for "about" OR used as a verbal escape hatch when the speaker doesn't want to be held accountable for the accuracy of the statement. Example: Teen "She has, like, five brothers." Listener "You mean you're not sure exactly how many brothers she has?" Teen "No, she has, like, five of them."

It's difficult for me to follow many conversations these days; they're, like, filled with, you know, tedious, extraneous bits of verbal fluff.

Oh, and I'm starting to hear double like popping up several times in a single sentence and I'm like like whoa!

I need a nap.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: JennyO
Date: 24 Feb 04 - 08:43 AM

Oz Cats, remember Kylie Mole?

She goes, she goes, she goes, she just goes.....

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: JennieG
Date: 24 Feb 04 - 04:28 AM

I work in the library of a girls' school - I hear "like", "sooo" etc for most of the day! I am waiting for the happy day when "like" suddenly disappears from the face of the earth; all teenagers everywhere will be struck dumb, unable to communicate.

Just think...no more "I'm like whatever" - "she's sooooo over him" - "and I go no way, and she goes like yeah".

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Daithi
Date: 24 Feb 04 - 04:11 AM

When i first came to England as a lad I lived in Lancashire and was amazed to hear the other kids use the word "gate" as a substitute for "said" - as in " He werra gate all night" = he was talking all night. Local dialect I assume - anybody else heard this?

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Cluin
Date: 24 Feb 04 - 02:36 AM

Or "sort of" and "kind of" that I've heard use as soliloquial conjunctions.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: darkriver
Date: 24 Feb 04 - 02:18 AM

I think it's far worse than discussed here.

Using "like" for "said" is almost Shakespearean compared to the more recent development, "all." As in, "I'm all, that's so ten minutes ago, and she's all, whatever."

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: JennyO
Date: 23 Feb 04 - 08:54 AM

Little Hawk, you are SOOOOOOOOOOO right!

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 07:07 PM

Yeah. I had a rather immature girlfriend once who was always playing to the "studio audience" that she seemed to think was out there, delivering cute little one-liners like you hear on sitcoms. She'd been exposed to far too much television when growing up. She couldn't figure out why everything in real life didn't neatly resolve itself at the end of each daily episode. She figured being cute, sexy, and perky would solve all her problems. It didn't.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Cluin
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 04:58 PM

It's the video generation. They're all sure there's a camera on them somewhere.

Come to think of it, there probably is. Watch the new fall TV schedule (due to start in December).

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 04:17 PM

Here's the thing about someone who says, "I am like SOOO over him."

They SOOOOO want you to know! Therefore, they are NOT over him yet. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 01:23 PM

Yeah, like...whatever...

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: JennyO
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 09:18 AM

I hear a lot of use of the emphasized word "so" -

I am SO over him.

That is SO not true.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Peace
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 12:54 AM

But like, I don't like my meds.

Oh, yeah, this February thing. Since when?

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Peace
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 12:51 AM

I am so going to stop using like.
I am like going to stop using so.
So, like, what it is?
It is like so what.
Who is like Snow White?
Who's on first.

Gotta take my meds now.

Like I gotta take my meds.
I like gotta take my meds.
I gotta like take my meds.
I gotta take like my meds.
I gotta take my like meds.
I gotta take my meds like.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 12:00 AM

There's a natural uplift lilt when I hear Irish speak, too, which is not at all like what BillD and AllanC have spoken of with young girls. Of course, Australia and Canada have their share of those from the "auld" countries, so it stands ot reason, I guess, that such things might cross over.:-)

When I was a teen, I think every other word out of my mouth was "man." Drove one of my sisters nuts. We argued about it a few times. "No way" was also very popular. I had one friend whose surname was Nation. She used "no way" so much, my then-spouse called her "No way Nation, shape or form!"

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Peace
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 12:00 AM

This thread is not just like groovy, it is groovy.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Firecat
Date: 21 Feb 04 - 04:01 PM

I think the title of this thread sums up what I think about it! I know I seem reasonably formal on here, but if you heard me with my friends, you would be going off on one!

At least I've got SOME extra intelligence than the single minded bimbos!

Classic example of Bimbotalk:-

"Heycheckthatfitladovertherehe'slikesogorgeousIwannas**ghimnow!" (Deliberately written with no spaces!)

Classic example of Me talk:-

"OK, I'll meet up with you at about 11, right, then we'll meet up with Becky at 11.30, OK? Where are we off after that?"

Ok, maybe there's a few more "Like"s in there, but at least I don't talk like I'm off Friends or Sex And The City!!

And I'm 20.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Gurney
Date: 21 Feb 04 - 06:17 AM

Vapid may be the word.
We used to say "Please engage brain before opening mouth."

In the next war , it may be possible to engage teenagers to fool the codebreakers instead of red, er, like, native americans.

I used to be able to ignore a lot of teenage female peculiarities. For the last 30 years I've been able to ignore them almost entirely!

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Amos
Date: 20 Feb 04 - 08:25 PM

The use of like as a place holder when one cannot articulate a concept or has no concept int he first place traces back at least to the Fifytes when the Beat fgeneration used it in phrases such as "Like3, groovy, man -- this place is like, Flipsville!! Ya dig, daddio?"

So it's got, like, tradition behind it anyway, man. It's nopt like, just, whatever -- it's TRADTIONAL, man!! It's from, like, Historyville, dude!


A

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: JenEllen
Date: 20 Feb 04 - 12:49 PM

Much agreed, Kim. Did you ever hear the song "Everybody Run (the homecoming queen's got a gun)"? My father says that's what it was like listening to my sister and I growing up. We just make the "W" out of our thumbs and forefingers and say "Whut-evvvvvur". It's a difficult thing to lose, especially when it was so much fun!

Thanks, Alice. It's nice to know where it came from. Walking through class I happened to hear an exclamation of "That's sick, dawg!" I now know it means something like: "jolly good, old sport" but for that instant I thought "sick dog" and thought "get 'em on the linoleum!" I'm ready for the rocking chair.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Kim C
Date: 20 Feb 04 - 11:32 AM

Well, a bunch of us who were teenagers in the 80s picked it up and still use it in casual speech. I know I do... I've become more aware of it, and I'm trying to eliminate it. Easier said than done.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Barry T
Date: 20 Feb 04 - 02:20 AM

Ah, Little Hawk, this [like] brings back memories of a similar thread back in June... http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=60323#964894

...which I initiated with a poetic rant!

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Feb 04 - 12:33 AM

What I, like, do in the slow days in, like, Febooary is I, like, go to the liberry, kno'm sa'in? You can, like, surf the net? They, like, don't even have a card catalog anymore? Those are SOOOO not happening, kno'm sa'in?

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Alice
Date: 20 Feb 04 - 12:14 AM

"Sick", meaning good, was a term popular in the 90's in areas like Rocky Mountain snowboarding and mountain biking slopes. I think it may have started with the skateboarders. I had to use it in some of the snowboarding tee shirt designs I did back then.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 11:26 PM

ya mean Febawary?

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: 42
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 11:17 PM

and what about all those people who think Febuary is a real month?

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: 42
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 11:13 PM

Is that like...a simile?

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 10:40 PM

does the word "shallow" seem to cover many of the things we are talking about here?

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 10:30 PM

I think you're absolutely right, Allan. The speaker suspects that she is not being listened to with much attention. And 99% of the time she is absolutely right, because the person she's speaking to is actually busy thinking about what SHE is going to say next, the moment she gets a chance to jump in....it's a vicious circle of insecurity out there! :-)

I also loved Peter T's comments way back there. Right on the mark, he was.

They're all deeply afraid that NO ONE is listening!!! Sad but true. It probably is a result of growing up in families where no one ever listened. TV watching is greatly to blame for that. How many parents actually listen to their kids? Not nearly enough of them.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 08:58 PM

the rising inflection that I hear in some Canadian speech is 'different' from the cutesy little tweedle used by the girls of the sort in Allan C's wonderful post. Canadian and/or Australian accents & inflection are simply distinctive language ---what 'those' girls do in ALL the cultures is a bit more, and very likely something like Allan suggests. Nice anaylsis, Allan.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: John Hardly
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 07:44 PM

"I saw this one girl? And she wore her hair down like this? When she was in that coffee shop down on Fourth Street? Where they serve that huge double latte with the colored sprinkles? And she was wearing one of those sweaters? Like the ones you see on "Buffy"? Only hers was..."

Gee, I so rarely get the chance to be pedantic amidst the scholars of mudcat, but I believe you have the tense wrong. It should read:

"So, I see this one girl? And she's like wearing her hair like, whatever. And she's, like, in that coffee shop? on Fourth Street? Where they serve, like, sprinkles and whatever? And she's,like, wearing on of those sweaters? Like the ones you see o Buffy? Only her's was....   .......bitch!

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Allan C.
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 06:49 PM

I saw this one girl? And she wore her hair down like this? When she was in that coffee shop down on Fourth Street? Where they serve that huge double latte with the colored sprinkles? And she was wearing one of those sweaters? Like the ones you see on "Buffy"? Only hers was...

Throw in a generous sprinkling of "like" and you get the idea. I sometimes think the abbreviated sentence phrases with the upward inflections are simply an attempt on the speaker's part to compensate for the (probably accurately) presumed short attention span of the listener. It implies to the listener an opportunity to indicate that some ingredient, vital to the narrative, was not understood.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: John Hardly
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 06:27 PM

recent news story.....

Many Universities are offering "like" remedial speech courses. Seems that, when these young students are entering the job market, "like" is becoming a real drag on their ability to land the good jobs.

Seems employers question the intelligence of those who over-use the word "like".

I'm like, so sure!

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Cluin
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 06:16 PM

"Friggin'" ?

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 05:52 PM

Yeah. It's a euphemism for you-know-what.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Cluin
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 05:47 PM

I'm not sure, LH. But I know north Ontarians don't use the word "flippin'".   ;)

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 05:35 PM

Thanks for the explanation, jeannie.

I knew the setup was fishy when I could understand every word that the barrister said.

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 05:26 PM

"Siiiick!" hasn't made the rounds here yet, I'm happy to say.

But "You go, girl" is getting, like, really "old".

Subject: RE: BS: I'm, like, 'Whatever...'
From: JenEllen
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 05:17 PM

Has anyone gotten "Sick" yet? That was the new word run ragged around here this fall. You pronounce it "siiiiiiiiiick". The closest I can come to translation is that it's the new 'awesome', and it usually has to do with physical feats, as in: "D'ja see'em fly off the ramp?" "Yeah, that was sick." I'm getting to where I'd like kill for a simple fer'shure, like, y'know?