Like

"Liking" redirects here. For the psychological concept, see reciprocal liking.

For other uses, see Like (disambiguation).

In the English language, the word like has a very flexible range of uses, ranging from conventional to non-standard. It can be used as a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, particle, conjunction, hedge, interjection, and quotative.

As a preposition used in comparisons

Like is one of the words in the English language that can introduce a simile (a stylistic device comparing two dissimilar ideas) as in, "He plays like Okocha". It can also be used in non-simile comparisons such as, "He has a toy like hers".

As a conjunction

Like is often used in place of the subordinating conjunction as, or as if. Examples:

• They look like they have been having fun.
• They look as if they have been having fun.

Many people became aware of the two options in 1954, when a famous ad campaign for Winston cigarettes introduced the slogan "Winston tastes good — like a cigarette should." The slogan was criticized for its usage by prescriptivists, the "as" or "as if" construction being considered more proper. Winston countered with another ad, featuring a woman with greying hair in a bun who insists that ought to be "Winston tastes good as a cigarette should" and is shouted down by happy cigarette smokers asking "What do you want — good grammar or good taste?"

The appropriateness of its usage as a conjunction is still disputed, however. In some circles it is considered a faux pas to use like instead of as or as if, whereas in other circles as sounds stilted.

As a verb

Generally as a verb like refers to a fondness for something or someone. Example:

• I like riding my bicycle.

Like can be used to express a feeling of attraction between two people, weaker than love and distinct from it in important ways. It does not necessarily imply a romantic attraction, but, as in the following case, it does. Examples:

• Marc likes Denise.
• Denise likes Marc.

In online communities (social networking or media sharing portals, e.g. on Facebook or YouTube), dedicated visual GUI elements (icons, buttons etc.) provide for users the option to like certain persons, groups, pages, status, posts, comments, published links, videos, photos etc., thus displaying their personal attraction, acknowledgement or sympathy with the "liked" object, and this "liked" status will be constantly displayed. Some communities apply a "dislike" option (as opposed to "like"), some even make possible to withdraw one's "like". This has become especially popular on Facebook, where people may even post giant 'like' images publicly as a sign of affection. Examples:

• You like this.
• You and 17 other persons like this.
• John Doe likes your link.

The word can also be redoubled (often in a more juvenile sense) to indicate a more romantic interest, often with increased stress on the first 'like.' The functional basis for this repetition is a heavy emphasis on the root meaning of 'like,' which is 'to favor.'

• I know you like Sam, but do you like like her?

In slang and colloquial speech

The word like has developed several non-traditional uses in informal speech. These uses of like are commonly associated with Valley girls in pop culture, as made famous through the song "Valley Girl" by Frank Zappa, released in 1982, and the film of the same name, released in the following year. The stereotyped "valley girl" language is an exaggeration of the variants of California English spoken by younger generations.

However, non-traditional usage of the word has been around at least since the 1950s, introduced through beat and jazz culture. The beatnik character Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver) in the popular Dobie Gillis TV series of 1959-1963 brought the expression to prominence. A very early use of this locution can be seen in a New Yorker cartoon of 15 September 1928, in which two young ladies are discussing a man's workplace: "What's he got - an awfice?" "No, he's got like a loft."

The word finds similar use in Scooby Doo (which originated in 1969) : Shaggy: "Like, let's get out of here, Scoob!"

The Top Cat TV Cartoon series from 1961-62 often used the word in a similar way to the above Scooby Doo quote, as quoted by the jazz beatnik type characters. It's shown in the 1962 Top Cat Annual several times too, e.g. "Like, that Mr Gaff is a real grouch"

It is also used in the 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange by the narrator as part of his teenage slang. "I, like, didn't say anything."

Such uses of the word like can now be found everywhere English is spoken, particularly by young, native English speakers.

A common eye dialect spelling is lyk.

As an adverb

Like can be used as an adverb meaning "nearly" or to indicate that the phrase in which it appears is to be taken metaphorically or as a hyperbole. Examples:

• I, like, died!
• They, like, hate you!
• He was, like, really really mad!

Like also has an adverbial use in the construction be + like + TO infinitive, meaning "be likely to, be ready to, be on the verge of." Examples:

• He was like to go back next time.
• He was like to go mad.

As the following attest, this construction has a long history in the English language.

• But Clarence had slumped to his knees before I had half finished, and he was like to go out of his mind with fright. (Mark Twain, 1889, Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court)
• He saw he was like to leave such an heir. (Cotton Mather, 1853, Magnalia Christi Americana)
• He was like to lose his life in the one [battle] and his liberty in the other [capture], but there was none of his money at stake in either. (C. MacFarlane and T. Thomson, 1792, Comprehensive History of England)
• He was in some fear that if he could not bring about the King’s desires, he was like to lose his favour. (Gilbert Burnet, 1679, History of the Reformation of the Church of England)

As a quotative

Like is sometimes used as a quotative to introduce a quotation or impersonation. In this usage, like functions in conjunction with a verb, generally be (but also say, think, etc.), as in the following examples:

• He was like, "I'll be there in five minutes."
• She was like, "You need to leave the room right now!"

Like can also be used to paraphrase an implicitly unspoken idea or sentiment:

• I was like, "Who do they think they are?"

It is also sometimes used to introduce non-verbal mimetic performances, e.g., facial expressions, hand gestures, body movement, as well as sounds and noises:

• I was like [speaker rolls eyes].
• The car was like, "vroom!"

See Golato (2000) for a similar quotative in German.

As a hedge

Like can be used to indicate that the following phrase will be an approximation or exaggeration, or that the following words may not be quite right, but are close enough. This usage is associated with informal registers and non-standard dialects. Examples:

• I have, like, no money.
• The restaurant is only, like, five miles from here.

As a discourse particle or interjection

Like can also be used in much the same way as "um..." as a discourse particle. It has become a trend among North American teenagers to use the word "like" in this way, see Valspeak, discourse marker, and speech disfluency):

• I, like, don't know what to do.

It is also becoming more often used (Northern England and Hiberno-English in particular) at the end of a sentence, as an alternative to you know. Note that this construction implies a desire to remain calm and defuse tension:

• I didn't say anything, like.
• Just be cool, like.

Use of "like" as a filler is a fairly old practice in Welsh English. In Scotland, it was used at least as early as the 19th century, e.g. in R L Stevenson's 1886 novel Kidnapped:

What'll like be your business, mannie? (p 7)

'What's, like, wrong with him?' said she at last. (p 193)

See Fleischman (1998) for a similar discourse particle in French.

Bibliography

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