I'm, like, what's so special about IMing anyway?

This article from Discovery News is about some recent research into instant messaging, which has suggested that the language used is closer to spoken language than any other medium (something we commented on in this blog last August).

As well as documenting the similarities between IM chat and speech, the article talks about the 'valley girl speak' construction of I'm like, wow, and he's like, so what. Apparently this combination of the verb to be and like to mean say or think now has its own linguistic label: it's known as the quotative like.

The article is interesting because it points out that this construction is partly responsible for making a lot of IMing 'sound like' speech. Compare (as the article does) I'm, like, wow! with I thought wow!. Or she was like, hi with she said hi. The intonation differences leap out immediately.

Apparently the quotative like is spreading at speed throughout the world, and is particularly on the increase in IMing. It's going to be fascinating to see what other innovations IMing brings, and whether it truly is speeding up language change.