Conference thebay::joyoflex

946.0. "'Said' is Dead; Long Live 'All'" by RDVAX::KALIKOW (Gobsmacked Codswalloped Bollocks) Sat Feb 15 1992 18:21

    (By Alice Kahn, San Francisco Chronicle; article brought to me by my
    S.F.-living daughter & copied w/o permission; _italics_ indicated thus)
                                 ============
    	I'm all, "When did people start talking this way?"
    
    	So I call my friend George Lakoff, the, you know, _linguist?_  And
    he's all, "What is 'all' doing there?  It's not your everyday 'all.'"
    
    	But the teenagers I know, they're all, "Ohmygod, this how we, you
    know, _talk?"_
    
    	And like this firl I know, Tamar, she went to the University of
    Vermont last year and during orientation this girl from the South is
    all, "Hi, you all,"  And Tamar, she's all, "I'm about to ask her if
    she's from the South because she has this Southern _accent?_  And she's
    all, 'Are you from California?'  And I'm all, 'How did you know?'  And
    she's all, 'By the way you say "all" instead of "said."'  And I'm all,
    'Ohmygod.'"
    
    	So I like call this other linguist, Geoff Nunberg, he's on like NPR
    and he's all, "It's used in the narrative present," and I'm all,
    "Really?"
    
    	And then he's all, "New verbs for 'say' come like every thousand
    years and suddently we have three at once."
    
    	He's talking about "like" and "go," which some people say instead
    of "all."
    
    	He's like, "What happened 15 or so years ago that led to three new
    verbs?"  And I go, "You don't think people got, you know, _dumber?"_
    
    	Then, this is so totally weird, I get this like _letter?_  And it's
    from thie guy Dave Reynolds who's a student at Del Amigo High School
    in, you know, _Danville?_  And he sends me this Slang Dictionary he and
    his friends wrote and there on Page 2 they're all: "He's all -- a
    phrase used instead of he said... example:  And then he's all, 'Hi
    there!'"
    
    	And then on the next line they're like, "He goes -- same as 'He's
    all.'"
    
    	And I'm like, "Dave, do you talk this way?"  and he's all, "I
    don't say it that much, but when teenagers are talking with their
    friends they say it.  And people I know, their mothers talk that way."
    
    	So I go, "What do you think of mothers who talk that way?" and
    Dave's all, "They sound more worldly.  They listen to their kids and
    communicate with them more."
    
    	And then I'm all, "Groovy."  And then Dave blows my mind by saying
    he's even heard people say "like" plus "all!" and I'm all, "Like give
    me an example," and he goes, "He's like all, 'I want to break up with
    you.'"
    
    	And I'm like all, "Yeah, I've heard that, for sure."
    
    	So then I'm all, "Dave, how come you don't have the word 'chill' in
    your slang dictionary?" because I've been chillin' with Dave on the
    phone for a while now and I like want to show him I'm worldly.  So Dave
    goes, "It's used so much it's really not slang."
    
    	Is he clownin' me?  Then I'm all, "Well, how come 'groovy' is in
    the slang dictionary?"
    
    	And he's all, "That's a comic term because it's so old."
    
    	And I like go all: "Oh."
    
                                                

    All like "It goes without saying."

Some people go, "Go," insteading of saying, "Say," in England too.  But
I've not heard, "All," here yet.

Go-go is a dance and say-go is nearly a pudding so what's the connection?

Jon

    I like like it all.
    
    Ray the Populist

    More precisely, "all" indicates paraphrase of an overemotional or
    insincere or otherwise "quoted" (not to be accepted at face value)
    utterance.  A habitual sic, so to speak.
    
    "Like" is much the same, perhaps allowing more latitude for unmocked
    sincerity. 
    
    Either may indicate the "punchline" place in reported conversations.
    Both emphasize narrative elements over the pretense to exact 
    transcription.
    
    "Go" comes closest to being a synonym for "said", but it does double
    duty as a replacement for "is" as a lead in to "like" and "all".  E.g.,
    
      "He's all, 'So why blame me?'"
      "He goes all, 'So why blame me?'"
    
    as opposed to
    
      "He goes, 'So why blame me?'"
      "He says, 'So why blame me?'"
    
    The use of the present tense is left as an exercise to the listener.
    
    Ray