Listeners' Attitudes and Sensitivity to Function: the case of two LIKEs

Since the 1980s, the functions of non-traditional LIKE have been extensively examined (Romaine and Lange, 1991; Dailey O’Cain, 2000; Fuller, 2003; D’Arcy, 2005). Functions of LIKE have most commonly been positioned in two subgroups—a discourse introducing or quotative LIKE (Romaine and Lange, 1991), and a discourse (also, pragmatic, focuser) LIKE (Underhill, 1988; Andersen, 2001; D’Arcy, 2005). Until recently, discourse LIKE has been contentiously debated as to its discourse marker status. Some scholars argue that because LIKE can alter the meaning of an utterance, it cannot lie in the discourse marker category (Fuller, 2003). D’Arcy (2005), which traced the syntactic development and grammaticalization of this elusive form, resolves the debate by naming a new category of LIKE—that of Approximator LIKE, which has distinct historical origins to Discourse LIKE (2005). Building on D’Arcy’s findings, this study investigates listeners’ ability to discern Discourse LIKE from Approximator LIKE and explores variation in their attitudes towards these two LIKE types. An ability to discern LIKE types will indicate whether LIKE users perceive distinctions in linguistic function.