“Me likey!” A new (old) argument structure or a partially fixed expression with the verb like
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21180403 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paula Rodríguez–Abruñeiras (0000-0001-9454-6052, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 90 |
| Pages | 237-249 |
| Publication date | 2022-03-31 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Círculo de lingüística aplicada a la comunicación (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1576-4737 • E-ISSN: 1576-4737 |
| Publisher | Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.5209/clac.77163 |
| OpenAlex | W4229059456 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 40 |
This paper explores the current use of the verb like in sequences such as “me likey”. This new use is practically limited to modern variant spellings (likey, likee, like-y and likie) and resembles the original (and now obsolete) impersonal structure of the verb in which the experiencer was encoded in the objective case and the verb was used invariably, among other aspects. However, rather than the re-emergence of an impersonal construction, the sequence “me likey” seems to be the result of a situation of language contact and it is in line with the informalisation of English as seen, for example, in the increasing tendency for objective pronouns to be used in subject position in a variety of constructions. In light of the evidence from the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the TV Corpus, we can conclude that the sequence is used in highly informal registers, and that it tends to appear in rather formulaic expressions, especially in two-word sequences
Biology · Linguistics · Verb · Computer Science · Gender Studies in Language · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation · Artificial Intelligence
Style
The Early English Impersonal Construction
Diachronic Grammar
The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language
Phonology and Morphology
The origin of the oblique-subject construction
Democratization and Gender-neutrality in English(es)
Peeking into the socio-historical background and current use of ‘me (no) likey ’
On the History of Methinks
Is between you and I Good English
Agile" and "Uptight" Genres
The case for politeness
Constructions, Word Grammar, and grammaticalization
Psych-verbs and ?-theory
Oblique subjects in contact languages and the nature of emerging grammars
Pronominal case assignment in English
Does English really have case
The demise of the Old English impersonal construction
Reconsidering the history of like
Us Anglos are a cut above the field’
Democratization of Englishes
Constructing new pronominal systems from the Atlantic to the Pacific
No Tickee, No Washee
Dialect and Dialectic in a British War Film
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |