The rise of the quotative “be like” and sociolinguistic stereotypes amongst young speakers

Term Paper (Advanced Seminar), 2020

17 Pages, Grade: 1,7

L S

LEONA SEDLACZEK (AUTHOR)

https://www.grin.com/document/977019

Table of Contents

1 Introduction

2 Evolution of the quotative be like based on Tagliamonte
2.1 Early use of be like by speakers born in the 1950s and 1960s
2.2 Be like on the rise: speakers born in the 1970s and the teenagers of the 1980s
2.3 Be like -natives: speakers born in the 1980s and 1990s
2.4 How can the rise of be like be explained?

3 The quotative belike in the 21st century
3.1 Assessment of be like ’s current status in the English language
3.2 Be like in slang and popular culture

4 Be like and language ideology
4.1 Teenagers are overusing be like
4.2 Be like stems from the Californian Valley Girls

5 Conclusion

6 Bibliography

1 Introduction

One hundred years ago, the quotative be like did not exist. Today, like ranks within the top ten words of linguistic corpora of teen language and be like is the most favored quotative of speakers younger than forty (cf. Barbieri 2009: 68). Hence, the present paper focuses on the quotative be like and its remarkablepathway of an emerging new linguistic feature of the mid-20th centuryto one of the core features of teen language and a potentially new standard quotative of the English language in general.

Linguistic evidence for the rise of be like presented in this paper is mainly based on the findings of Canadian linguist Sali A. Tagliamontewho analyzed teen language on the basis ofseveral corpora over the past decades. Her 2016 publication Teen Talk sets her apart from many other sociolinguistic studies on the quotative be like as a majority of them have been published in the late 20th century, rendering thempartly out of dateas be like is still on the rise. Tagliamonte’s work not only offers an insight into historic data but also takes the linguistic developments of the early 2000s into account which allows a timely assessment of the seemingly ever-changing quotative be like.In the second section of this paper, other linguists’recent study results will be taken into account to assess be like ’s status as a quotative of the 21st century.In a third step, differing sociolinguistic implications regarding be like will be illustrated by examining thesociolinguistic implications of be like.

The present paper hence aims at approaching possible answers to the question of how the rise of be like can be explained byillustrating different stages of development hinged on various generations of speakers based on Tagliamonte’s research. The current status of be like is assessed and put into context withpopular culture and social media.The emergence of be like will be put into context with stereotypes about teenagers’ impact on language change as well as with the so-called Valley Girl phenomenon. By examining the sociolinguistic implications linked to be like ’s current popularity, it will be shown that be like is not simply a phenomenon of teen language but might instead settle within the English grammar of the 21st century.

2 Evolution of the quotative be like based on Tagliamonte

In the chapter Quotatives: I’m like, „Oh my God!” of her2016 book Teen Talk: The Language of Adolescents, Canadian linguist SaliA. Tagliamonte analyzes the use of quotative be like as one of the core features of teen language.The findings presented in her book are, to a large extent, based on extensive studies and corpora she conducted and worked on together with her university students in Canada and England. In line with the idea that stories are an authentic way to analyze people’s language use, Tagliamonte’s Storytelling Corpora of 1995-2004produced an “eclectic collection of experiences, tales, and confessions” (Tagliamonte 2016: 11) told by friends and families of participating university students. The researcher states that personal narratives were“the prime locus for quotative verbs” and hence enabled her to detect the “new innovation, the use of like as a quotative verb, before most people knew it was rising” (Tagliamonte 2016: 12).