There are also lexical items which function as discourse markers,
however, and which are so complex in structural, social and stylistic terms
that linguists spend a lot of time studying them (Barbieri 2009; Cukor-Avila
2002; Dailey-O’Cain 2000; Rickford et al. 2007; Tagliamonte and D’Arcy
2004).^6 Some terms (like, you know, well, and but) show us “how speakers
and hearers jointly integrate forms, meanings, and actions to make overall
sense out of what is said” (Schiffrin 1987: 49).
A particularly interesting discourse marker is like, which can be used in
more than one way. As a focuser, like draws attention to a particular aspect
of a sentence, as in “Well, it’s not like wonderful, but it’s okay” (Dailey-
O’Cain 2000: 61). More commonly like (as a discourse marker) is a
quotative and thus serves to signal a change in the source of the narrative:
“My dad was constantly down on me. It’s like, ‘Get a job’” (ibid.: 62). At
first glance it would seem that this must be nothing more than a random
phenomenon and devoid of any significance, but that is not the case. For
example, Dailey-O’Cain found that people talked one way about this use of
like (“bad grammar”) but did not necessarily evaluate speakers who used it
negatively. Age always played an important role in both the use and
perception of quotative like.
Rickford’s (2007) study found distinct changes over time for the
quotatives in both speech and popular media (chat, blogs, discussion boards)
in California (Figure 2.10):
Sometimes an English language usage may seem to be unimportant or
even trivial; certainly in this case, quotatives often invite mocking and
humor. However, close study of this kind of subtle marker can reveal a
great deal about the community of speakers who use it.