1 Shannon Cassells ENGL 4110 11/25/13

Introduction: The point of this study was to test when, how, and who is using the discourse marker like in casual conversation and conversations portrayed on reality television show. Also to show what function the discourse marker like serves in a sentence. The first data set was taken from Teen Mom a 40 minute long reality television show about four different girls raising their children and their daily lives, which includes friends, family member, etc. mostly ranging from the age 17-25. The second data set comes from a 40-minute conversation between a 22-year-old female and a 21-year-old male who are currently dating.

Method: In both data sets I took into account the context of the sentence when using DM like. This was done by sifting through other definitions of like that do not fall under DM like and keeping the ones that do. Then I looked at who they were exactly speaking to when using DM like, such as friends vs. adults, or boy friend vs. girl friend etc. The formation of my data is split between Teen Mom and my recorded conversation. Teen Mom and my recorded conversation are split into five different charts.

2 Total use of DM like. Topics (casual, past drama, current drama, being the categories). Who theyre talking to (friends, significant other, parent/child). What type of DM like they are using.

The topics chart divide groups into casual, past drama, and current drama in order to tell the over all topic in which DM like is being used. Casual will range from anything to small chat to any light conversation. Past dramas column is for drama that is being discussed that has already happened. Drama meaning anything that is a heavier topic to which one party, whether present or not, is at least slightly disgruntled. Then current drama would be drama being discussed that is currently happening to the person, such as fear of pregnancy or some other issue bothering at least one party involved. As for the type of DM like they are using For the portion about who is saying DM like to whom is separated into groups of friends, significant others, and parent/siblings. Of course for the recorded conversation section I decided it would be redundant to put this chart in since there are only two people involved and theyre in a relationship as noted earlier. I found it important that I define the discourse marker like in order not to get it confused with other uses of the word like. This essential distinction points to what exact words I choose to study and analyze. The like I will be examining falls under the definition of a word or phrase that does not change the meaning of the sentence and is independent of the overall meaning. Some different functions of DM like include:

3 Filler- Filler words works similarly to the word um. They are placeholders in order to perhaps take a pause or think over what you are saying. Example I dont know why I didnt like do that before. Hedge- Hedge is used as a way to make the sentence less harsh, for example, maybe hes, like, cheating on you? Approximation- Approximation also falls under the discourse marker category that means to point out an approximation in the sentence or an exaggeration. Im like dying right now, Im so nervous. This allows me to easily compare and contrast between the two sets of data.

Data: Data set #1 Teen Mom Uses of DM like Names Chelsea Janelle Leah Kaitlyn Laura Mark Jeremy Janelles Mom Joe Havi Vee Corey Total Total DM like use 12 2 22 8 7 1 8 1 6 2 1 1 71

Topics surrounding the use of the DM like

Names Chelsea Janelle Leah Kaitlyn Laura Mark Jeremy Janelles Mom Joe Havi Vee Corey Total Who? Names Chelsea Janelle Leah Kaitlyn Laura Mark Jeremy Janelles Mom Joe Havi Vee Corey Total

Casual

Past Drama 7 8

Current Drama 12 2 15 1 7 8

1 3 2 1 17 3 1 1 53

Total 12 2 22 8 7 1 8 1 6 2 1 1 71

Friend 12 7 6 7 1

Significant Other 2 15 2 8 3 2 1

Parent/Child

Total 12 2 22 8 7 1 8 1 6 2 1 1 71

1 3

1 34

33

5 Topics Names Chelsea Janelle Leah Kaitlyn Laura Mark Jeremy Janelles Mom Joe Havi Vee Corey Total Types Names Chelsea Janelle Leah Kaitlyn Laura Mark Jeremy Janelles Mom Joe Havi Vee Corey Total Filler 9 1 14 4 1 4 1 1 35 Hedging 1 1 6 3 7 1 7 1 2 1 30 Approximation 2 2 1 Total 12 2 22 8 7 1 8 1 6 2 1 1 71 Casual Past Drama 7 8 Current Drama 12 2 15 7 7 8 1 3 2 1 17 3 1 1 53 Total 12 2 22 8 7 1 8 1 6 2 1 1 71

1 6

6 Data set #2: Recorded Conversation Total uses of DM like Names Matt Shannon Total Topics Names Matt Shannon Total Types Names Matt Shannon Total Filler 29 18 47 Hedging 19 7 26 Approximation 13 8 21 Total 61 34 95 Casual 27 23 50 Past Drama 4 4 8 Current Drama 30 7 37 Total 61 34 95 Total 61 34 95

Discussion: The results of this study show that there is a slight correlation between when talking about dramatic events or stressful events like are a lot more likely to be used. The 75% of the people on Teen Mom used DM like while discussing current drama happening to them. As an example when Chelsea was discussing the possibility of being pregnant to her friend Laura, and up to this point Laura has not

7 used the DM like at all until she hears this news and proceeds to string together seven utterances at once. When comparing to my recorded conversation it is way less polarized like data set one, in fact they were the opposite with 52% of DM like being used in casual conversation. However, when focusing on the majority of the DM likes being used of frequency by Matt were higher than in the rest of the conversation. For when Matt he started discussing why he was upset with one of friends and he was explaining the situation to me. During the five minutes we discusses this topic he said like twenty times, whereas throughout the conversation his use of like was much more spaced out. Overall it was only 18% of the time that DM like was being used when talking about current drama, thus not as strong of a result as data set one. As for looking at the different types of DM like its clearly shown in both data sets that filler is more common than the other examples I provided, but not by too much. In data set one, filler is used 50% of the time. However, in data set two filler DM like was used almost double the amount of the rest of the other categories. This is different in data set one where it is a lot more evenly spread out. It is also apparent from the data that the DM like is used equally to when being said to friends and significant others, but a lot less so when to parents. Of course this is only being taken from Teen Mom since there was no parent involved in my recorded conversation. However, only once when a parent was present did one parent use the word like, which was being used as hedging DM like to soften up her sentence to not sound as accusatory. Janelles mother was discussing having

8 Janelles son sleep over and wanted to place ground rules. She said, I dont mind him spending the night, but they cant be, like, drinking and partying over there. Up until this point conversations between parent and children have been civil and causal with no other utterance of DM like. However, this may be a product of editing on producers of Teen Mom in only showing the really dramatic parts of the show and therefore they occur more between friends and significant others. The only issue in comparing Teen Mom to my conversation would be that the shows structure. The show is spilt between these four girls and other people in their so I only see a fraction of their conversations and only show the more exciting parts of their lives in shorter amounts of time. Compared to the thirty-minute conversation Matt and I had where were bound to have a higher number of uses than the girls in the show.

Conclusion: Overall, the similarities and differences between data set one and data set two are fairly even accept minor details would cause higher results in one data set as opposed to the other. Meaning the structure of the reality show broken up and edited, compared to the recorded conversation between two people. I believe that the results for this study could be replicated using two regular conversations or any other reality television show with similar results. The use of DM like is present in todays day and age vocabulary used amongst all age groups. This study shows that one is more likely to use DM like when talking with people you view as equal like a significant other or a friend as

9 opposed to parents. This is not to say that parents do not use DM like because they certainly do. It is also apparent that there is no difference in male or female both use DM like equally. Stress and drama when presented in a conversation is linked to using DM like possibly because the high correlation of using DM like as a filler word. When the person is feeling heated or upset they need more filler words in their sentences in order to think over what theyre trying to say. Thus, filler category of DM like is higher than the others shown above and is linked towards stress. However, using DM like as a filler without stress in drama is also common. When looking at data set two that has moderately less drama and more casual use of DM like it is still abundant in sentences uttered.