It's like, you know, like

[sherron0]

I had an interesting conversation with with of my young friends at the Franklin School Resource Center yesterday (no, I did NOT sign Shelby up for classes so I could have more excuses opportunities to talk with young people). 

She was reading Eclipse, so we talked about that, and her friends recommending it, etc, etc.  I thought Shelby's class was over, so I was wrapping up the conversation.  I said, "Now Brittany, between now and the next time we speak, I want you to drop about 4 out of 5 'likes' in every sentence of your conversation.  You sound like some valley girl public school student.  It will not serve you well in the adult world.  Where did you even pick it up?"  (Yes, I do talk to them all as frankly as I talk to my own.)  She began to explain that it was the same girls at the horse barn that had recommended Eclipse, etc.  See, homeschoolers can be victims of peer pressure too. 

But we continued on talking about the friends, and horses, and stuff in general.  (Shelby's class was running WAY over) The interesting thing was that from the moment I mentioned it, 'like' disappeared from her vocabulary.  And I don't mean she would catch herself, and leave it out, I mean it just wasn't there.  A complete change of register. 

You know, we all adjust our language according to whom we're talking.  No one cusses in front of Grandma or the boss, we don't use work jargon around our non-rocket science relatives, etc. My speech gets more 'country' the longer I'm around my family, Mark says he can tell when I'm on the phone with my mother after one sentence.  My rhythm is different. 

But I was just taken aback at seeing it happen right in front of my eyes, with no change of location or conversation partner.   I just love language and communication.

Comments

[phantomminuet.livejournal.com]

I need to start doing that, too, because the proliferation of "likes" in young adult-speak drive me crazy.

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

The linguistics term is "codeswitching." spacealien_vamp did a major thesis paper several years ago on codeswitching between fannish and mundane environments. :-)

At the time the default meaning was the classic example of the bilingual child of immigrants speaking one language at home and another at school, but most of the work done recently is on subtler dialect shifts.

[the-theorist.livejournal.com]

I noticed a sharp rise in cussing when John got to college. He used to pride himself on not cussing... yeah... his freshman roommate ruined that. Now I've noticed myself and John's best guy friend cussing a lot more when John is around. Weird how that works.

I am particularly bad about picking up the accents or phrases of people I'm around. For instance, Susan Locklear has a very distinct nasally (yet adorable) laugh, and whenever she is in town I start laughing like her without thinking about it... except, I don't get it quite right and I just sound silly.