Jan. 22, 2008 -- Instant messaging, a synchronous form of typed, computer-mediated communication, is becoming more conversational, blurring the divide between face-to-face speech and writing, suggests a new study.
Evidence for the change includes the growing use of forms of "to be" combined with the word "like," as in, "He was like, 'It's so interesting.'" The practice is commonly known as "Valley Girl speak," but linguists refer to it as "be + like" or "quotative like."
"What we document is the use of quotative like in spontaneous writing, where people are using it -- a lot -- as a tool for quoting the speech and thought of themselves and others," co-author Bambi Schieffelin told Discovery News.
"What this suggests is that IMers experience the activity of IMing as very similar to face-to-face talk," she added. "Indeed, we find that they go out of their way to develop styles of writing that make IM more like talk."
Schieffelin, a professor of anthropology at New York University, and colleague Graham Jones had student investigators between the ages of 18 and 20 collect data on their own speech and IM practices in the years 2003 and 2006. In total, 33 face-to-face conversations and 132 IM sessions were recorded.
As the recordings demonstrate, students kept their communications raw and real.
For example, one speaker, Ellen, visited her doctor and documented this face-to-face chat she had afterwards with a friend: "And umm and he was like you know alright and so then he took my blood pressure and he was like it's a little bit high did you eat a lot of salt last night? And I was like dude, I had pizza."
Another student, Tom, recorded this from an IM: "Haha and marc asked if i wanted to get dinner tomorrow and im like…I have clas (sic)…and hes like at night? and im like yup…and hes like what about lunch in the afternoon…and im like oh i have class then too…"
While such casual chit chats and writing might horrify parents, the researchers believe that quotative like serves a valuable function, particularly in IMing. Without it, speakers and computer users are limited to standard verbs, such as "say" and "think," to introduce quotations of speech or thought.
Quotative like, on the other hand, can enquote gestures, facial expressions and sounds. It provides speakers and even computer users with a means for producing a wide range of demonstrative effects, according to the researchers.
For example, "I thought wow," when read aloud, doesn't include the same intonations as "I was like, 'Wow!'"
"In particular, we see that the young speakers we study use standard forms, such as 'say' and 'think,' when they want to establish factual matters, and 'be + like' when they want to call attention to a speaker's attitude or demeanor," explained Jones, who contrasted the statement "She said, 'Hi'" with the statement "She was like, 'Hi.'"
When spoken, the latter would probably include some intonation in the utterance. That extra meaning may then carry over to an individual who reads the sentence in an IM.
In their paper, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Language & Communication, Jones and Schieffelin determined this usage of "like" has dramatically increased in IMing over recent years.
In 2003, speakers used it 75 percent of the time while communicating face-to-face but only 6 percent of the time in IM's. By 2006, usage in IM's had jumped to 50 percent, and is believed to still be increasing.
John Singler, a professor of linguistics at NYU who did not work on the study, told Discovery News that the "utter rapidity" of the way that "be + like" has spread is "remarkable," and it hasn't just happened among Americans.
He pointed out that speakers and IMers in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Ghana and "who knows where else" have also been bitten by something akin to the quotative like bug.
Singler added, "Language is always changing, but it's virtually unprecedented for it to change this fast."
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