"And you touch me and I’m like…ooh ooh" — "Empire" by Shakira.
"GIRLS BE LIKE SELFIEEE"- memestache.com.
Though admittedly jocular in nature, these phrases show the preeminence of the relatively new English verb ‘be like,’ which is arguably one of the most innovative and efficient verbs in our language.
Distinct from the verb ‘be’ and the discourse marker ‘like’ (popularly called a "filler"), as in "she was, like, so late," ‘be like’ functions as a quotative. Quotatives generally report speech, thought or emotional state. In standard language, verbs such as ‘say,’ ‘tell,’ ‘exclaim,’ etc. perform the traditional role of quoting and reporting speech.
The verb ‘be like’ in its quotative function emerged in spoken American English in the second half of the 20th century and has been on the rise for the past two decades.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology cultural and linguistic anthropologist Graham Jones estimated up to 80 percent of American college students employ this quotative in their daily interactions with each other, evidencing its popularity and efficiency.
Nonetheless, traditional self-professed grammarians are wont to dismiss ‘be like’ as a legitimate linguistic entity, and various media outlets stylize and trivialize the verb. Jessica Love, who holds a doctorate in cognitive psychology, said even the New Yorker frequently uses commas to punctuate phrases with ‘be like’ ("He was, like, dude…"), effectively obscuring the quotative’s meaning and usage by confusing it with a discourse marker.
The trend of dismissing or trivializing ‘be like’ is problematic for several reasons. Firstly, it is not a crime to distinguish between standard and nonstandard forms of a language. However, deriding the pronunciation and grammar of nonstandard forms of language does nothing to advance our knowledge of language or how it is regularly employed in real-world contexts.
I have met many English teachers who are convinced their duty to humanity is to rid English of fillers such as ‘like’ and ‘um,’ although these words function as important discourse markers that occur naturally and organically in authentic human speech and perform important roles. Unsurprisingly, since ‘be like’ features the ever-blasphemous ‘like,’ it is often falsely equated, such as in the New Yorker anecdote above, as a useless filler that can and should be omitted for the sake of English itself.
This is where I’m like … people need to realize ‘be like’ is, in the appraisal of many linguists, a "Swiss army knife" of a phrase because it is impressively broad in its communicative scope.
Considering my use of ‘be like’ in the preceding paragraph, we can posit at least four distinct interpretations, which themselves can intersect to form a rich, highly opinionated conveyance. First, the sentence indicates I have simply said "people need to realize…" Another interpretation is I just thought to myself "people need to realize…" Conversely, I might have said something roughly the same as "people need to realize…" but with altogether different words. Lastly, I might have meant I experienced an emotional state that reflected "people need to realize," or, in the spirit of the ellipsis, maybe I just pursed my lips, closed my eyes and shook my head ever so slowly, maybe with a little hum.
With certainty I write that no other quotative has both the semantic potential or functional utility to perform all four communicative tasks I have identified. So, even though it might be more refined to use the verb ‘say,’ it certainly is not nearly as efficient or communicative.
Our view of language should be shaped by and reflect language as it is used in everyday interactions, free of the tyranny of arbitrary "grammar" rules and irrelevant stylistics.
So, I challenge those reading this to listen a little closer to the linguistic interactions surrounding you: You will be shocked how prevalent ‘be like’ is. You might even be like "dang!"
Jordan MacKenzie is a second-year UF linguistics master’s student. His column appears on Wednesdays.
