Posted on: Thursday, September 12, 2002

EDITORIAL
Do we, like, really need this phrase?

We were, like, looking for an editorial topic the other day? When we came across a piece in, like, the Chicago Tribune?

It was interesting. Turns out that a Temple University associate English professor named Muffy E.A. Siegel has studied the phenomenon of the word "like" invading the speech of today's teenagers, particularly teenage girls.

This is not, she says, simply another fad way of talking that Valley Girl wannabes use to make adults squirm. As opposed to other linguistic hiccups such as "um" or "you know," "like" may perform a useful semantic function, Siegel said.

For starters, "like" substitutes for "said." Or, it could suggest exaggeration: "It's, like, the most awesome movie ever." Or it could even be used to inject a note of uncertainty about the accuracy of a statement: "He has, like, every 'N Sync record ever made." Or, emphasis: "I am, like, so tired."

In short, this verbal tick may have some grammatical value that could one day become embedded in our language.

We're, like, hoping that doesn't happen?