“The selective attention paid to the language of adolescents has led to the enduring belief that young people are ruining the language and that, as a consequence, the language is degenerating. One feature of contemporary vernaculars that is often held up as exemplification of these ideological principles is like, the ‘much-deplored interjection… that peppers the […]
Tag: like
“Like” a linguistics study
“Discourse marker like (DML) is recognized as a highly stigmatized feature of American English, one with strong ideological ties to inarticulate, ‘Valley Girl’ speech. Previous work suggests that individual listeners form impressions that both reference and perpetuate DML’s status, as DML- containing speech is judged as friendlier and less intelligent than controls.” But what about […]
What makes a metaphor difficult to understand?
Here is an example of an easy metaphor: “My lawyer is a shark.” Here is an example of a difficult metaphor: “Happiness is a ditch.” Notwithstanding whether or not you have already given up trying to interpret the second one, the question may still be asked: “What makes a metaphor difficult to understand?” which is […]