Q: The word like seems to be present in every sentence that young people utter. What is its purpose? What does it mean? And why do they do it?

A:The correspondent has expressed the viewpoint of many older people about the ubiquitous like in the young people's speech. It fills the conversations of teenagers and even many graduate and professional students seem unable to avoid using like at least once in every sentence.

The phrase like y'know is also common and is synonymous with like.

The like habit seems more common in females than in males–perhaps because young women seem to be doing most of the talking, although I have reached that conclusion only from overhearing informal conversations of law students outside of my office in the law library.

Dictionaries trace the “new” like to counterculture slang and bop talk, in which it originated in contexts like, “The band was, like, really loud.” and “Like, why didn't you tell me?” Except for those who are addicted to it, like is regarded as an annoying interjection that indicates the paucity of its users' vocabularies and has no function other than to fill space.

But like is not only a space-maker. To its users like has several meanings and at least one function: to fill a pause in the conversation with language so that listeners cannot interrupt with their own comments. Thus like functions like the non-meaningful sound uh of their grandparents and the um of their parents. All these meaningless sounds fill the pause, so that the speaker can decide what to say next.

To young people like can convey meaning, especially when it is used alone. My eavesdropping detected at least the following meanings. Like means, “similar to" in: “She's, like a person who doesn't care how she looks.” Like can imply “not actually,” as in, “He like told her he really cared.” Like also takes the place of the verb says, in the statement: “She's like I don't believe it and he's like, it's true.” Like can replace the verb seemed or" behaved as if,” in “She was like angry and walked away without answering.” And like, while it has no intrinsic meaning, can affect the meaning of the following word. Compare “We were like usually hungry” (“not always hungry”) and “We were usually like hungry” (“almost hungry”).

So, if like irritates you, resist the temptation to do, like Humpty Dumpty,

The chances are good that the ubiquitous like will eventually be forgotten, and if not, future generations will get used to it and wonder what all our fuss was about. In the meantime, to those law students whom I have heard using it outside my office, this advice: Don't use like or like y'know during your job interviews. However, if you are addicted to those expressions, that advice may be impossible to take.

Two older, ungrammatical meanings for like are idiomatic and not specific to young people. In southern dialect, like means “almost”: “I liked to die (d) laughing.” And like can be a noun in informal, idiomatic speech: “I never saw the like (s) of it.”

But, traditionally, like is a preposition, contrasting with the conjunctions as and as if. The poet Bobby Burns uses like correctly in his famous lines:

Now, however, like has become a conjunction as well as a preposition, almost replacing as and as if in popular speech and even in formal speech and writing. Language purists deplore that change, although linguists point out that it has been used that way for nearly 500 years.

For example, like is a conjunction meaning “as” in the statement, “Leave it like it is.” It means “as if” in, “The car runs like new” and in locutions like, “It looks like there's a hurricane approaching.” The comment, “Tell it like it is.” is axiomatic. (To my knowledge, no one ever says, “Tell it as it is.”)

As long ago as in 1985, even the conservative Usage Panel of The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition (1985) approved of the use of like in sentences like, “He took to politics like a duck to water.” In contexts like those, like has been used as a conjunction for centuries both in popular language and by educated persons. ( Most people would say, “It has been used like a conjunction.”)

But language-purists, a vocal minority, have criticized like as a conjunction so vehemently that the Random House Unabridged Dictionary (on-line, 2006 edition) recommends that in formal speech and writing one should choose as or as if in contexts like those quoted. But despite the objections of purists, like has superseded as and as if. Language is a democracy in which the majority always prevails.

Regarding the article about embarrassing typos (in the April “Language Tips”), this one, from Smith v. U.S., 599 F.Supp. 606,607 (1984), bears mentioning:

Gertrude Block is Lecturer Emerita at the University of Florida College of Law. Her book ,”Legal Writing Advice: Questions and Answers” (William S. Hein & Co., Inc.) was published in December 2004. Ms. Block is also author of “Effective Legal Writing”, 5th Edition (Foundation Press), with an accompanying instructor's manual. She is co-author of the “Judicial Opinion Writing Manual” (published by the American Bar Association, 1991). Send questions to the ISBA Bar News – Language Tips, Illinois State Bar Association, Illinois Bar Center, Springfield, IL 62701, or e-mail her at block@law.ufl.edu.