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!
-- bungston, Mar 16 2010

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]

//young people// umm... considering that habit is a few decades old...

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".

[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".

Haitians pronounce it "Ah-ee-tee" (french)

[-]
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 16 2010


So, Likey?

// Why do young people liberally pepper oral communication with the modifier, "like"? //

Because they lack the self-confidence to pierce the silence with longer streaks of uninterrupted speech?
-- RayfordSteele, Mar 16 2010


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.
-- DrWorm, Mar 16 2010


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.
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 16 2010


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.
-- DrWorm, Mar 16 2010


"DROST":

"Dominican Republic, Other Side of the Tracks"
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 16 2010


There's always "Hopey".
-- blissmiss, Mar 16 2010


perhaps it works in the opposite way and the word *hate* takes on a more sympathetic emphasis.
-- po, Mar 16 2010


Haiti should agree to be renamed 'Ronald McDonald' BUT only if McDonalds tow Hispaniola out of the storm paths and rebank it somewhere stable.
-- Nelipot, Mar 16 2010


// (french) //

"And with that, M'Lud, I submit that the case of the Crown versus [FlyingToaster] is proven ..."

What was it called before the Europeans arrived ?
-- 8th of 7, Mar 16 2010


//What was it called before the Europeans arrived ?//
"Island that Shakes"
-- coprocephalous, Mar 16 2010


//What was it called before the Europeans arrived?// <link>
-- jurist, Mar 16 2010


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?

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.
-- nineteenthly, Mar 16 2010


There's one particular use of "like" which is rather serendipitous. Consider the following example:

'Some people are like "Why can't you use well-constructed sentences?", but I'm like "Wo'ever!". '

In this case, we can imagine a semantic payload over and above that of

'Some people say "Why can't you [...] "' etc.

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.
-- pertinax, Mar 18 2010


[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.
-- mouseposture, Mar 19 2010


You can do *that* fairly easily with indirect speech.
-- pertinax, Mar 21 2010


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.
-- nineteenthly, Mar 21 2010


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.

Also, //might appeal to an otherwise unenthusiastic demographic// [marked-for-tagline]

Oh. Are we in Haiti?
-- pertinax, Mar 21 2010


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.
-- blissmiss, Mar 21 2010


[pertinax] I concede indirect speech. But not *that.*

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.

(edit:) And, by the way, well-played: That was damn subtle humor.
-- mouseposture, Mar 21 2010


the dots on the i's kept falling off.
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 22 2010


//Why does it need re-naming in the first place?// Marketing.
-- mouseposture, Mar 22 2010


//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//

This from the maker of "two cups of coffee"...;-)
-- blissmiss, Mar 22 2010


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.
-- rcarty, Mar 22 2010


...are we going to rename The Seven Dwarfs?
-- xandram, Mar 22 2010


//...are we going to rename The Seven Dwarfs?// Begs the question: Which one gets to be named "Likey"?
-- jurist, Mar 22 2010


I was thinking that also Chile might like to be named Hotty...
-- xandram, Mar 23 2010


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.
-- nineteenthly, Mar 23 2010


That's what i would say, but it's not popular. It's closer to the indigenous pronunciation immediately before the Europeans got there.
-- nineteenthly, Mar 23 2010



random, halfbakery