h a l f b a k e r yNot so much a thought experiment as a single neuron misfire.
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Why do young people liberally pepper oral communication with the modifier, "like"? I propose that it is to harness the good feelings and positive attributes associated with like, and associate these feeling with whatever is being said. This prinicple may be at work in other ways at well: consider the
subliminal good feelings toward Ronald Reagan produced by decades of advertising featuring Ronald McDonald, or that conservatives might feel subliminal affirmation of Obama because his name conjugates "Bomb" and "Osama".
But poor Haiti. The country never can catch a break. Could it be the name? How can one love something hatey? I propose Haiti be renamed with a name redolent of goodwill and affection. This can only help!
Name That Country
Name_20That_20Country
Not quite the same idea but close enough for a [marked-for-deletion] redundant? [DrBob, Mar 16 2010]
"What was it called before the Europeans arrived?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti
"Ayiti (land of high mountains) was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the mountainous western side of the island." "Kiskeya" was the original Taino name for the entire island of Hispaniola. [jurist, Mar 16 2010]
[link]
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//young people// umm... considering that habit is a few decades old... |
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but re the content, most of the world, including Haiti, doesn't speak English, and most of the ones that do don't speak USA'ian... "ha-ee-tee". |
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[edit] It appears that "hay-tee" is considered the normal anglicization, others include "ha-ee-tee" as well as "high-tee" and "high-ee-tee". |
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Haitians pronounce it "Ah-ee-tee" (french) |
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// Why do young people liberally pepper oral communication with the modifier, "like"? // |
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Because they lack the self-confidence to pierce the silence with longer streaks of uninterrupted speech? |
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You bring up a good point, [bungston], with your mention of
Ronald Reagan and Mcdonalds. So I'll be the first to propose
the obvious: Let's rename Haiti Ronald McDonald. |
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for awhile, I tried to rid myself of null-content such as "ummmm" and "like" while talking by simply not saying anything... the result could only be described as "'William Shatner' without coffee" which is... possibly more ............ annoying than the...... original "like"s or "umm"s. |
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At one point, I participated in a "team-building" activity
seminar. One thing we did was a game in which you had to
name as many objects from a given category as possible in
one minute, without using any placeholding, or as you said,
"null-content" words. I was assigned the category "Fruit". To
get around the "um" restriction, whenever I was at a loss for
words, I said "plum", then pretended to have forgotten that I
had already said it before. |
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"Dominican Republic, Other Side of the Tracks" |
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perhaps it works in the opposite way and the word *hate* takes on a more sympathetic emphasis. |
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Haiti should agree to be renamed 'Ronald McDonald' BUT only if McDonalds tow Hispaniola out of the storm paths and rebank it somewhere stable. |
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"And with that, M'Lud, I submit that the case of the Crown versus [FlyingToaster] is proven ..." |
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What was it called before the Europeans arrived ? |
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//What was it called before the Europeans arrived ?//
"Island that Shakes" |
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//What was it called before the Europeans arrived?// <link> |
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This is of course naming. I happen to agree it should be renamed. Someone was talking about it the other day and i thought he was referring to the heating. It could be called something like West Hispaniola, or would that have colonial connotations? |
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On "like", it signals a quote, can be used to translate the German "mal" and there's another use which is nebulous to me but is quite rigidly definable. It's not vague, it's just new. English should have more words like "like" and i'm a fan thereof. |
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There's one particular use of "like" which is rather serendipitous. Consider the following example: |
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'Some people are like "Why can't you use well-constructed sentences?", but I'm like "Wo'ever!". ' |
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In this case, we can imagine a semantic payload over and above that of |
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'Some people say "Why can't you [...] "' etc. |
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Specifically, the construction with "like" can be taken to convey a package of communication including verbal and non-verbal elements, whereas the simpler construction quotes only words. |
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[pertinax] To me, the "like" in your example indicates that
the quoted passages are pariphrase, rather than quotation.
"Some people ask 'why can't you use well-constructed
sentences,' or words to that effect, but I reply with the
sentiment conveyed by 'Woever.'" Wow, that's hard to do
without using "like," and I don't like^H^H^H^H care for the
result much
either. |
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You can do *that* fairly easily with indirect speech. |
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Yes, but there's generally a lot of redundancy in language. I like "like". It introduces a quote and you can't hear quotation marks. It might also have the power to stop people doing air-quotes, which might appeal to an otherwise unenthusiastic demographic. |
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I too like some instances of "like", like the "like" quoted above, but I'd like to reserve the right to disagree furiously with your reasons for liking unlike "like"s. |
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Also, //might appeal to an otherwise unenthusiastic demographic// [marked-for-tagline] |
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East Cuba has a nice ring to it. I think you could keep
the same spelling and just change the way it's
pronounced. Make people say "Hatti". Hatti sounds
like a nice, tropical island, sort of sun hat type of
place. Hatti. No Haiti, just Hatti. Thas all. |
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[pertinax] I concede indirect speech. But not *that.* |
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I could write "Some people ask why we can't use well-
constructed sentences, and I reply with a shrug." but "I say,
like, 'Whatever'" is better: the music fits the lyrics, as it
were. |
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(edit:) And, by the way, well-played: That was damn subtle
humor. |
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the dots on the i's kept falling off. |
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//Why does it need re-naming in the first place?//
Marketing. |
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//I still don’t really get this idea after all. Why does it
need re-naming in the first place?
— Ian Tindale, Mar 21 2010// |
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This from the maker of "two cups of coffee"...;-) |
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I've always thought those folks said "like" because they know they're not going to find the right words to explain what they're thinking, so they indicate that what they are saying is only an approximation. |
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...are we going to rename The Seven Dwarfs? |
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//...are we going to rename The Seven Dwarfs?// Begs the question: Which one gets to be named "Likey"? |
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I was thinking that also Chile might like to be named Hotty... |
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I think it would benefit from renaming mainly because the pronunciation is debatable, and i think it should be called Western Hispaniola. East Cuba makes it sound like it's on the same island as Cuba and is confusing because it's on the west side of its island rather than the east. |
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That's what i would say, but it's not popular. It's closer to the indigenous pronunciation immediately before the Europeans got there. |
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