Be like et al. beyond America: The quotative system in British and Canadian youth

Abstract

In this paper we study the quotative system of contemporary British and Canadian youth. Multivariate analysis of nearly 1300 quotative verbs demonstrates that the innovative form be like is productive in both Canada and Britain. Traditional quotatives such as say, go, think, are used according to somewhat different patterns in the two corpora. We suggest that this is the result of differing narrative styles across varieties. However, the linguistic trajectory of the innovative form be like is remarkably parallel, not only across the British and Canadian corpora, but is also comparable with previous reports of this form in the United States. This finding provides evidence for a systematic global diffusion of be like across geographically separated speech communities and calls for further research into the social and linguistic mechanisms underlying such internationally circumscribed linguistic change.

Como in Commute: The Travels of a Discourse Marker across Languages

“…This discourse function of "like" has come to be known as the quotative "like" in future studies (Blyth et al, 1990;Romaine & Lange, 1991;Ferrara & Bell, 1995;Tagliamonte & Hudson, 1999;Dailey O'Cain, 2000;Tagliamonte & D'Arcy, 2004). Blyth et al (1990: 215) further develop Schourup's definition by stating that the quotative function of "like" "allows the speaker to express an attitude, reaction, or thought, as well as something actually said."…”

“…In reference to the variation of "like" according to age, younger speakers employ "like" as a discourse marker more than older speakers (Blyth et al, 1990;Romaine & Lange, 1991;Ferrara & Bell, 1995;Tagliamonte & Hudson, 1999 In contrast to the use of "like" according to age, studies of "like" according to gender demonstrate conflicting results. Although Romaine & Lange (1991) conclude that women use "like" as a discourse marker more than men, Ferrara & Bell (1995) find that men use "like" as much as women do, and Dailey O'Cain (2000) concludes that although speakers perceive that women use "like" more than men, both men and women use "like"…”

“…Tagliamonte & Hudson (1999) and Tagliamonte & D'Arcy (2004) have traced the diffusion of "like" to Canada,…”

“…of the different methodologies of the studies, the documentation of the discursive "como" in a Spanish monolingual community suggests that the innovative discourse functions of "como" may not be the result of contact with English, but an internal change in Spanish as the result of grammaticalization that may be accelerated by or triggered from contact with English. By analyzing these studies together, it appears that the discursive "como" may be diffusing in the same way as the diffusion of the use of "like" as a discourse marker in English which was first detected in American English dialects (Underhill, 1988;Romaine and Lange, 1991) and subsequently spread to other English speaking countries (Tagliamonte & Hudson, 1999;Tagliamonte & D'Arcy, 2004;Anderson, 2001;Miller, 2009).…”

“…Since then, the use of "like" as a discourse marker has not only spread across American English dialects, but also to other English-speaking countries. Tagliamonte & Hudson (1999) traced the spread of "like" to Canada, Anderson (2001) to Great Britain, andMiller (2009) to Australia and New Zealand. The use of "como" in Spanish as a discourse marker equivalent to "like" has followed a similar pattern.…”